TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Nickel-miner Vale Inco will trim its name down to just Vale, the Brazilian-owned group said on Thursday.

Rio de Janeiro-based Vale, the world's second-largest mining company, bought Canadian nickel-miner Inco in late 2006.

The global nickel business will continue to be headquartered in Toronto, Vale nickel CEO Tito Martins said.

“Our nickel business today is larger than it was in 2006, when we first invested in Inco and we are building on that investment every day,” he added.

Vale's nickel unit has more than 11 000 employees worldwide and net sales in 2009 of $3,26-billion, accounting for 13,6% of Vale's overall global revenue.

The company's operations in key production hub Sudbury, Ontario, have been hit by a more than 10-month-long strike though, after the firm could not reach an agreement on a new contract with production and maintenance workers.

Vale has since restarted production using office workers, nonunionised employees and external contractors.

Employees of the company are also on strike at the Voisey's Bay mine in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The company's global nickel business has operations in Canada, Indonesia, New Caledonia, the UK, China, Japan and Brazil.

To subscribe to Mining Weekly's print magazine email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or buy now.