No refinery, no mine, Tobin warns Inco Project's benefit to Newfoundland must be maximized, Premier says
Canadian Press ST. JOHN'S
Newfoundland Premier Brian Tobin has fired another warning shot at the owner of the Voisey's Bay mineral find amid reports that the company is backing out of building a key part of the project.
"If there's no smelter/refinery complex, there's no mine," Mr. Tobin said yesterday in the legislature.
The Globe and Mail reported yesterday that Rick Gill, executive vice- president of Inco's Voisey's Bay Nickel Co. Ltd., told an Australian nickel conference this week that his company is reassessing building a smelter/refinery in Argentia, Nfld.
It's been reported over the past couple of weeks that the mining giant is facing low market prices for nickel.
Inco shares have also taken a beating. At closing yesterday, Voisey's Bay stock was worth $16.65, down from $17.50 on Tuesday. Only two months ago, the stock was worth about $25. The company's stock price has declined so significantly that the total value of Inco is worth less than the $4.3-billion it paid for the nickel, copper and cobalt find at Voisey's Bay in April, 1996. Mr. Gill and other Inco officials couldn't be reached for comment.
Opposition mines critic Paul Shelley said he agrees with the Premier that if a smelter isn't built, there'll be no mine in Labrador. "Either we do Voisey's Bay right or we leave it in the ground," he said. There have also been reports that Noranda, which owns almost half of Inco's chief rival, Falconbridge, is interested in buying the Voisey's Bay operation. Although there hasn't been any confirmation of a takeover, Mr. Tobin said it doesn't matter who the players are.
Placentia Mayor Bill Hogan, whose town is awaiting the smelter project, said he hasn't heard from Inco officials about reassessing the project. But he said the question will be raised with company officials on Dec. 17.
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PUBLICATION The Financial Post
DATE Thu 11 Dec 1997
EDITION Daily
SECTION/CATEGORY 1, News
PAGE NUMBER 20
BYLINE Chesley Andersen
COLUMN TITLE Letters to the Editor
No agreement yet with Inuit association
Re: Inco Cutbacks, Voisey's Bay Pitch Fails To Impress Analysts Or Investors (Nov. 20).
The statement to the effect that "Inco has reached a tentative agreement with the Labrador Inuit Association" could be misleading. The Labrador Inuit Association (LIA) and Voisey's Bay Nickel Co. Ltd. (VBNC), Inco's subsidiary, have agreed to continue negotiations toward an impacts and benefits agreement (IBA) and negotiations are progressing. However, no IBA, tentative or otherwise, has been reached.
The president of LIA has recently confirmed to both Inco and VBNC that LIA will not consent to the Voisey's Bay Project until it achieves an agreement in principle for the settlement of Labrador Inuit Land Claims in Labrador and an IBA with VBNC/Inco and until the project has been released pursuant to the applicable Newfoundland and federal environmental assessment processes.
Chesley Andersen,
Mineral Resource Adviser,
Labrador Inuit Association,
Nain, Labrador.
The Financial Post
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PUBLICATION Saint John's Evening Telegram
DATE Wed 10 Dec 1997
EDITION FINAL
SECTION/CATEGORY Metro/Provincial News
PAGE NUMBER 2
BYLINE Gary Hebbard The Evening Telegram
Heated discussion at smelter forum
Discussion became heated at times Tuesday night at a meeting to discuss construction of a nickel smelter in Argentia to process ore from Voisey's Bay.
The St. John's meeting was called by the Citizen's Mining Council, a group that wants to ensure the most stringent environmental guidelines are enforced before any smelter is given the green light.
Most people in the audience of about 40 expressed their doubts that plants, fish, wildlife and humans of the Avalon Peninsula can withstand the emissions of sulfur dioxide that will be a necessary byproduct of the smelting process. But a vocal few insisted the emissions would not be nearly as harmful as some think and counselled compromise.
"Economic development, given the pressures our natural environment is under, has to be totally in harmony with our natural environment," said CMC chairman Jim Brokenshire.
The council accepts that environmental assessment must be viewed as an integral part of economic development, he said. But they want to see the most information possible provided to the public so people can make informed decisions.
"If we decide to make trade-offs and if those are things that the public are aware of and are prepared to make, fine," he said.
But right now the CMC feels the environmental impact study process is badly flawed with not enough openness for the public to get and assess all relevant information.
"But we're not anti-big business, per se. We're saying there are rules here for dealing with this ... the public should know how the system works so that things aren't done and presented as a fait accompli."
Rick Bouzane, a director of the Canadian Wildlife Federation, was one of several people who urged compromise. He accused groups such as the CMC of not doing their homework by dealing with Inco directly, meeting with their environmental consultants and having independent experts assess their data.
Bouzane said he has done that and is basically satisfied with the answers he's gotten.
"We believe that they (Inco) are legitimately trying to follow the rules of the law," he said.
He classed some of the opinions expressed by the CMC as simple fear mongering, and suggested there is more to be concerned about than unproven potential health effects.
"You want to talk about health effects? Go out to Placentia and look at the despair and the stress and the agony that's going on out there right now and you tell me that (pollution from a smelter is) going to do any more environmental damage," he blustered.
"B.S., that's what that is." |
