Inco-Voisey Bay Nickel [ T.N.V] Message Board

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Gold/Mining/Energy : Inco-Voisey Bay Nickel [ T.N.V]

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To: Kitskid who wrote (1057)	2/19/2000 1:50:00 AM
From: Kitskid	Read Replies (1) of 1615

Nero fiddles while Rome burns! Tobin eats cucumber sandwich while Voisey's Bay Nickel mothballed!!! - -----------------------<SNIP>-------------------------------- - thetelegram.com - Inco to close St. John's office: report 2/18/00 The Canadian Press Toronto - Sources say Inco Ltd. plans to shut down most of its Newfoundland operations, raising doubts about whether one of the world's richest nickel deposits will be mined in the near future. Inco officials declined to comment Thursday to The Globe and Mail, which reported the story in Friday's edition. But sources close to the company said it decided to virtually close its St. John's-based subsidiary after negotiations with Newfoundland broke down last month over how to develop the Voisey's Bay nickel, cobalt and copper discovery in northern Labrador. "The message is that we do not feel that anything is going to transpire at Voisey's Bay in the near future," said one person familiar with the decision. Sources said Inco intends to cut about 20 employees at its Voisey's Bay Nickel Co. unit in St. John's. The job cuts will leave unit president Stewart Gendron and a few support staff in an office that employed more than 100 executives, support staff and exploration workers at its peak two years ago. "We are going to be left with a maintenance operation in St. John's," an Inco source said. Inco's decision won't affect about 20 full-time geological employees and an unidentified number of contract workers who are doing surface exploration work in Labrador. The planned cutback is the latest development in a game of brinkmanship that Inco and the Newfoundland government have been engaged in since 1997, when falling nickel prices prompted the company to back away from its promise to build a $1-billion smelter and refinery in the province. Inco acquired Voisey's Bay in 1996 for $4.3 billion but can't mine the Labrador ore until Newfoundland grants a mining permit. Inco has proposed two alternative mining and processing plans since 1997, but both were rejected by Premier Brian Tobin because the company would not commit to processing the ore in Newfoundland. Last December, the two sides appeared to be close to an agreement after Inco privately proposed building a $180-million pilot project to test a new hydro-metallurgical system to process the Voisey's Bay ore locally. Tobin balked at the plan, however, when Inco insisted on an escape clause that would allow it to back out of the processing plan if unforeseen technology or economic problems arose. Tobin has said in a variety of speeches and press interviews that he can afford to play hardball with Inco because the mining company needs the Voisey's Bay ore more than ever at a time when world nickel inventories are shrinking and spot prices are nearing a five-year high. But Inco's decision to all but shut down its St. John's operations indicates the company is in no rush to resolve the future of Voisey's Bay. "It is not the sign of somebody who is going to come back and ramp things up," conceded one senior Newfoundland government official who declined to be identified.

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