TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian iron-ore hopeful Century Iron Mines has appointed Hubert Vallee, a former Cliffs and Consolidated Thompson manager, as logistics, mine development and operations VP, the company said on Monday.

Vallee was part of the team that built the Bloom Lake mine, which in July 2010 became the first new producing iron-ore mine in Canada since the mid-1970s, and was later employed by Cleveland-based Cliffs Natural Resources, which bought the operation through its $4.9-billion purchase of Consolidated Thompson.

Century said Vallee will lead the company’s aggressive iron-ore development plans in the James Bay and Labrador Trough regions of Quebec and Labrador, with an initial focus on building logistics solutions for the Trough and Duncan Lake projects.

CEO Sandy Chim said Vallee brought experience in building and operating an iron-mining company of world scale.

“This will contribute greatly to realizing Century Iron's vision to be one of the largest and best iron-ore companies in Canada in a few years,” he added.

Century hopes to be a 10-million-ton-a-year producer by around 2015, and has a joint venture agreement with China’s Minmetals and Wuhan Iron and Steel Company on its Canadian properties.
 

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