$2.17B of Investment Headed to Newfoundland

[Jack]

The Newfoundland government announced yesterday it has a commitment from Vale Inco to construct a smelter at Long Harbour to process Voisey`s Bay nickel. Vale Inco informed the province late Friday that it will build a hydromet plant rather than a more traditional matte refinery. Hydromet processing involves using water-based chemical treatment to extract nickel from the concentrate and refine it to finished nickel. A matte plant would have seen nickel concentrate produced at Voisey`s Bay shipped to Ontario and Manitoba for smelting, with an intermediate product sent back to Long Harbour to be refined into finished nickel. Direct employment over the three-year construction phase is expected to average 1,630 people per year. Peak construction employment will occur in 2011, with the operational phase to employ an average of 450 people beginning in 2012. The capital cost is projected at US$2.17-billion.

(National Post 081113)