Vale to Process First Nickel Shipment in Long Harbour

Brazilian mining titan Vale is set to process the first shipment of nickel concentrate at its plant in Long Harbour on Monday. A hundred percent of the new production will be sourced from Voisey's Bay in the beginning of next year, according to a new report.

CBC News reports 2,000 tonnes of nickel concentrate from the company's Labrador mine in Voisey's Bay were brought to the hydrometallurgical plant. The report revealed that the next shipment will arrive in summer.

The Long Harbour plant began production in July 2014. Its ultimate capacity is equivalent to 50,000 tonnes of nickel annually. The report noted that the plant would also produce copper and cobalt products, adding that "majority" of the company's raw materials came from Indonesia. Indonesia has imposed an export ban on raw minerals last year to boost local production.

Amur Minerals Corporation (London AIM:AMC) is another company that owns a promising nickel project that would allow it to play a larger role in the nickel market. Its pre-production license for its Kun-Manie project was approved by the Russian government last Friday, allowing it to mine an estimated 831,000 tons of nickel from the site. According to Amur's website, its Kun-Manie project lies on top of the Kun-Manie Massif, a geologic structure that possesses economic amounts of sulphide nickel, copper, cobalt, platinum and palladium.

Vale's Voisey's Bay operations is situated in an area governed by the Innu Nation and the Nunatsiavut Government. The company is in contract with these aboriginal groups under the Impacts and Benefits Agreement that prioritises the employment of the Innu and Inuit communities.

Currently, the company's mine employs 450 people, but it may soon add 400 more as the underground pit mining operations begin at the mine and concentrator. Vale is working on a detailed engineering study for the mine's development. It stated that construction should commence sometime next year and may be done by 2019.

Vale's Voisey’s Bay nickel mine opened in 2005 and is a fly in-fly out operation. It was discovered by diamond prospectors in 1993 and covers the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, The Economist revealed in a report last year.

Apart from being remote, the mine is isolated by ice for six months every year. To reach the mine and transport goods and workers to-and-fro, the company uses a polar-class icebreaking cargo ship called Umiak I.

On its trip back, the ship carries "as much as 30,000 tonnes of nickel-copper concentrate" to the city, which is sent to Vale's Sudbury smelter by train.

"That makes for a precious cargo: the price of nickel is well off its peak but the load is still worth a cool $100 million or so," stated The Economist.

Contact the writer: a.lu@ibtimes.com.au