TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Another round of contract talks between Vale Inco and the United Steelworkers have broken down, the company said on Friday.

Brazilian-owned Vale met this week with union representatives for its operations in Sudbury and Port Colborne, with the assistance of mediator Kevin Burkett, in the hopes of ending a strike that began in mid-July, 2009.

“During the talks, the company had comprehensive discussions with the USW on the outstanding issues and presented the union with a detailed plan to return employees to work,” Vale said in a statement.

No further talks are scheduled.

More than 3 000 United Steelworkers union members employed at Vale Inco's operations in Sudbury and Port Colborne, Ontario, have been on strike for almost ten months, after they were unable to reach agreement on a new contract.

The main unresolved issues relate to pension structures and bonuses.

Vale restarted some copper and precious-metals production in Sudbury last year, and switched its focus to nickel in January, restarting one of the furnaces in the Copper Cliff smelter.

And after a new contract proposal was rejected by the union in March, the company announced it was start ramping up nickel production and would move towards full production at its Coleman mine and restart and ramp up to full capacity at the Creighton operation, while continuing partial production at the Garson ramp mine.

Vale, the world's second-largest mining company, bought Canadian nickel-miner Inco in 2007.

The last brief set of talks between the company and the United Steelworkers Union in Canada broke off in March.

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