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Esperance Longdoz/Cockerill Sambre/Arecelor blast furnace 6, Seraing/Belgium, during one of its last hours of full operation last Saturday night. In the lower part of the photo you can look straight into the tapping hole where the liquid iron leaves the furnace. The upper part is filled with typical dust emissions. Shutdown in progress.

Right now, it is the final hour of a voyage that started April 29, 1959. Between 8 and 9 o'clock this morning, the final tapping is taking place. It is the last part of the shutdown procedure which started about 48 hours ago. Within days, the impressive blast furance will be cold, free of electricity and disconnected from the plant's gas network. Together with all other Liege area hot metal plants, it will be demolished in 2009. A total of 12,000 jobs will be threatened in a region with an unemployment rate higher than 30%.