Extensive work is taking place at the factory, which is located on the characteristic peninsula reflected in the Sørfjord just outside the center of Odda. Inside the factory, there is construction of a new electrolysis hall, a new noise control, a new waste collection system and a new sulfuric acid factory. At most there have been around 1,000 people working at the same time in the factory area to reach the finish line. On 21 July 2021, the news came that the Swedish owners in Boliden were to invest 8.5 billion euros and almost double production at the zinc plant in Hardanger. Everything will be finished in 2024. Then it will be exactly 100 years since the work saw the light of day. Then the zinc smelter will become the most green, environmentally friendly and advanced in the world. Will they be able to finish by the anniversary? The Boliden zinc works is located on a peninsula just outside the center of Odda. Inside the factory, a new electrolysis hall and a new noise barrier are being built. Photo: Boliden Odda In addition to a new waste disposal facility and a new sulfuric acid factory. Photo: Boliden Odda At most there have been around 1,000 people working at the same time inside the factory area in order to reach the goal. 1,000 tonnes of scaffolding are in use during the construction period. There is a lot of work going on to expand. and modernize the factory. The factory had to bring in floating hotels, so-called “flotels”. Three long barges of 100 meters with barracks over two floors are placed close together, like a city of its own. With a total of 1001 beds. Workplace for 50 years The Boliden or “zinken” as the oddians call the factory, has been the workplace for many in Hardanger. And there is one man who knows the work particularly well. It is Svein Øyre (65). He is something called the operator of the exhaust gas system at the plant. This means that he makes sure on a daily basis that everything works as it should at the gas treatment plant. He knows every corner of the factory like the back of his hand. He takes us into the noisy area where the zinc is produced. He walks with quick steps past the smelting areas while he explains enthusiastically. Liquid zinc with a silver color that glistens in the light comes down the chute at a temperature of around 540 degrees. – I have held on for quite a long time. I hope I will be able to participate and start up the new plant in the spring. Until next year, Øyre has worked here in the factory for 50 years. He started as a store clerk in the office at the factory in 1974. Two weeks before he turned 16. When he turned 18, he was allowed to start rotating shifts at the noise factory. Since then he has been at the factory. – You must have good health if you are going to last 50 years, says Øyre. Svein Øyre has soon worked at the factory continuously for 50 years. Here he is standing outside the gas treatment plant he is responsible for. Photo: Tale Hauso / news Old sins Zinc is an important metal which, among other things, is used in the car industry, in the IT industry, aircraft and in the health industry. Actually for everything possible. Zinc is widely used for galvanizing iron and steel to prevent it from dissolving or rusting. Then the objects are usually dipped in molten zinc. Finished zinc that is ready to be transported to the buyers. Photo: Tale Hauso / news But the result of the production has and has had a downside. When you take out zinc, you get an environmentally harmful residual material, which can have large amounts of heavy metals such as lead and mercury. Sørfjorden has previously been called one of the world’s most polluted fjords due to emissions from industry. One of them was from Zinken. In the newspaper Hardanger in 1972, results from the environmental investigations showed that there were heavy metal concentrations that were 900 times higher than normal on the bottom. Øyre remembers well that the whole lake was red with mud that went out into Eitrheimsvågen. Facsimile: Hardanger Folkeblad But then a great effort was made to pack in “the old fun”, as Øyre calls it. In 1986 there was a day of jubilation in Odda, when the factory stopped discharging industrial waste into Sørfjorden for good. The environmentally harmful residual materials were now placed in large halls that had been blasted into the rock. The following year, Norzink received an environmental award for having spent NOK 85 million on purely environmental measures. Industrial emissions have been greatly reduced in the last 20–30 years, and the condition in the Sørfjorden has improved somewhat, according to a report from the Norwegian Environment Agency. Now the factory has a new goal. To become more environmentally friendly and greener. Although there have been complaints about both noise and dust from the neighbors during the development period. – It is a power-demanding industry we work in, but making such a power-demanding industry as green as possible is excellent, says Øyre. The red mud is long gone and the vegetation is back. Photo: Tale Hauso / news Ligg i genane Øyre takes us further into the factory and down one floor to his break room. Here he has enlarged several black-and-white photos from the factory through the ages, and hung them on the wall. The factory has been and is a cornerstone company in inner Hardanger. Øyre takes down a picture that means a lot to him. It is a picture of the grandfather standing with his back to the photographer. He is standing and slurping zinc. The picture was taken shortly after the war. – It’s a picture of my bestie. That time they used capes instead of helmets, and no one wore glasses, says Øyre, who is in full protective gear from head to toe. The grandfather worked from 1929 to 1970. It is the same shift he was on when he quit, which Øyre started on six years later. Now Øyre is happy that the factory is investing and preparing for the future. – This is wonderful stuff. It was very important, especially for society, that the owners wanted to invest so much in the company. Photo: Tale Hauso / news Betting on 100 new years Managing director Helene Seim looks out over the construction area where there is full activity. She believes it is a unique opportunity and is important to ensure a hundred new years for the factory. She is the manager who will convert the factory to produce green zinc and become the most modern zinc works in the world. – We produce a metal that is hugely important for the green shift, and the zinc we make here has the lowest CO2 footprint compared to the other zinc producers, says Seim. She points out that they have obtained a long-term agreement with renewable energy in hydropower, so that the factory will have a low footprint. Helene Seim is managing director at Boliden Odda and is responsible for the major development. Photo: Tale Hauso / news The release of zinc at Boliden will be around 1.0 kg, while the average is 3.6 kg. – But how green can zinc become? – It doesn’t get much greener than the way we’ve managed it here in Odda, says Seim. At the factory, they will also have a so-called lead-silver plant. There they will take out approx. 40,000 tonnes annually of a residual product that would otherwise have gone to the mountain halls. Here there is both lead, silver and some gold. It will be taken out and sold on to other facilities, and in this way the zinc works will get more use out of the raw material. The oil fund is the world’s largest government investment fund, and has an investment of around NOK 623 million in Boliden. Last year, the Oil Fund came out with a climate action plan that showed the importance of the companies they invest in thinking about climate and the environment. One of the most important goals in the plan is that all companies they invest in must have a goal of net zero emissions by 2050. Julian Rødal has been given a permanent job at the factory and is involved in the project to make the factory greener. Photo: Tale Hauso / news New powers Julian Rødal is 21 years old and is an automatic mechanic. He has got a permanent job at the factory after being an apprentice there, and will work in the new electrolysis hall which is under construction. – It is incredibly exciting and cool to be involved in such a large project. It doesn’t often happen on land-based facilities, says Rødal. He thinks it is good that the factory has such a strong focus on becoming greener. – It is very important, says Rødal. Both Rødal and Øyre are important pieces in the work to get the factory ready for the summer. Øyre is excited about the next few months before the extension is finished, and whether there will be another anniversary party. – I was actually at the anniversary party when the company was 50 years old. Now I’m only a few months away from the 100th anniversary, says Øyre. – But it will probably be so busy with the start-up of the new factory, that I don’t think we will have time for a party in connection with the anniversary, adds Øyre with a smile. Photo: Tale Hauso / news
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Zinc factory Boliden in Odda invests billions to make the world’s greenest zinc – news Vestland
