Vale to proceed with Voisey’s Bay expansion
Vale will proceed with an underground mine at the Voisey's Bay nickel operation in northern Labrador.
Diversified major Vale will proceed with the construction of the Voisey’s Bay underground mine and will invest close to $2-billion in the project, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Dwight Ball announced on Monday.
The investment by Vale will extend the operational life of Voisey’s Bay, currently an openpit mine, by about 15 years.
Vale halted the expansion project last year, when the company announced a review of its worldwide operations amid a persistent downturn in nickel prices.
Vale’s head of operations in Labrador, Peter Langlois, said that the company would immediately begin to ramp up its workforce and execute work to support underground development at Voisey’s Bay.
Construction would start this summer and first ore production from the underground mine was expected by no later than April 2021.
“We are entering a remarkable and exciting period of transition in our Labrador operations. We have always known that the openpit was going to be exhausted at some point and going underground was the next natural step,” Langlois said.
Vale executive director for base metals, Eduardo Bartolomeo, commented that its Voisey’s Bay operation was a “huge source of pride” for the group.
Located about 35 km south of Nain, Voisey’s Bay has been producing nickel since 2005. At peak production, the underground mines will produce about 40 000 t/y of nickel-in-concentrate, which will be shipped to Vale’s Long Harbour facility to be processed into finished nickel.
The expansion project will create 16 000 person years of employment during the five-year construction period, peaking at 4 800 in 2020. Once operational, 1 700 in jobs will be created at the underground mine and the Long Harbour processing plant.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation