NS: MV Miner salvage might spawn new industry

A water-level view of the MV Miner, aground on Scatarie Island, shows extensive structural damage on a large portion of the ship in this Oct. 13 photo. - Steve Wadden, Cape Breton Post 

Removing the stranded ship from shoals off Scatarie Island could be a boon to a developing partnership between Laurentian Energy and Marine Recycling Corp., of Port Colborne, Ont.

[SYDNEY, NS] — Economic opportunity could spring from an eyesore on the Cape Breton coastline.

Removing the MV Miner from shoals off Scatarie Island could be a boon to a developing partnership between Laurentian Energy and Marine Recycling Corp., of Port Colborne, Ont.

“We had been looking at recycling the Miner here at Sydport and had been in discussions with the salvage company, but that was before it started breaking up into a lot of pieces,” said Dennis Lanoe, CEO of Laurentian Energy. “If it was floatable we could bring it here. I don’t know what it is going to look like in the spring because throughout the winter it is going to get torn up even more.”

The best-case scenario for Laurentian at this point would for the ship to be cut into three or four big pieces and brought to Sydport for recycling.

Currently, the company has no experience in this area. That’s where Marine Recycling Corp. would come in.

Laurentian has been working with Marine Recycling Corp. founder and director of business development Wayne Elliott to try to develop a ship recycling partnership at Sydport for the past 6 years.

“We have salvaged shipwrecks before, so sure, if the opportunity comes we may have our hat in the ring for that,” said Elliott. “But more vessels for recycling at Sydport is what we are looking at.”

In particular, he was referencing the $25-billion contract to build Canada’s newest fleet of warships.

Recycling the vessels the new ships will replace could create up to 50 long-term jobs at Sydport, he said.

“There will be equipment and lots of training and certification for the various types of work that we do, from asbestos abatement to liquid waste handling, torch cutting, machine operation and general labour.”

As of Thursday a spokesperson for the provincial government said no contract for the removal of the MV Miner had been awarded. That’s something that might be addressed in the spring.

Lanoe said if there is a competitive bidding process, they would be interested in pursuing the contract.

“We were hoping we might have gotten those (Marine Atlantic) ferries before they were shipped to India but that didn’t happen. There’s a huge potential here for developing a new industry of ship recycling at Sydport.”

Source: The Daily Business Buzz. By Greg MacNeil. 4 November 2011

http://www.ns.dailybusinessbuzz.ca/Provincial-News/2011-11-04/article-2795820/NS%3A-MV-Miner-salvage-might-spawn-new-industry/1