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Gold/Mining/Energy : Inco-Voisey Bay Nickel [ T.N.V] -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kitskid who wrote (1057)	2/15/2000 11:48:00 PM
From: Kitskid	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1615

thetelegram.com --------------<snip>---------------- Inco to spend $70M on deepening of mine 2/15/00 - By The Canadian Press - Inco Ltd., whose Voisey's Bay nickel project in Labrador is stuck in political limbo, will spend $70 million to extend the life of its Manitoba mine by at least 15 years. Toronto-based Inco, the world's second-largest nickel producer, said Monday its plans include providing access to about 13.6 million tonnes of additional ore at the Birchtree mine near Thompson, Man. The decision is welcome news for a community that is just starting to recover from a lockout of 1,400 Inco employees that shut the company's Manitoba operations from last September until early December. "This puts a lot of minds at rest in terms of the longevity of this division," said Bob Desjarlais, president of the United Steelworkers of America Local 6166, which represents Inco's Thompson employees. The Thompson operation consists of two mines, a smelter and a refinery. It produces about 105 million pounds of nickel annually, or 22 per cent of the company's total nickel output. Inco said the deepening work at Birchtree, set to begin immediately, will allow the mine to double its production rate to 3,175 tonnes a day by 2004 and extend the operation until 2016. The company said it is going ahead after employees demonstrated that mine operating costs at Birchtree could be reduced by more then 25 per cent. Inco also said it is thinking about deepening its 1-D mine at Thompson as part of a strategy focusing on discovering new nickel deposits at existing mines in Manitoba and Sudbury, Ont. David Davidson, an analyst with Newcrest Capital Inc. in Toronto, said he believes Inco would never have gone ahead with the Manitoba project if its Voisey's Bay nickel project in Labrador had not been stalled. With Voisey's Bay in limbo because of the Newfoundland government's insistence that nickel produced at the site be processed in the province, Inco is going ahead with other projects. "That is good to see," Davidson said. He said the Manitoba expansion is in line with Inco's plan to use available capacity at its Thompson smelter. About 24 per cent of the nickel refined there is custom feed material from operations owned by other producers. Analysts say Inco can take advantage of rising nickel prices by pushing more of its own material through its Thompson smelter and selling the nickel to its own customers. Inco spokesman Jerry Rogers agreed. "We are trying to firm up our Canadian reserves to get more production from Inco-sourced materials," he said. "That is where you make your dollars." Monday on the Toronto Stock Exchange, Inco shares rose $1.80 to $30.80.

To: Kitskid who wrote (1057)	2/19/2000 1:50:00 AM
From: Kitskid	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to 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.