Vale announced that the Reed Creek (Reid Brook) mine, located in the expansion project of the (Voisey's Bay) mine in Vois Bay, north of Labrador, Canada, has achieved a milestone in producing its first batch of nickel ore.
Vois Bay has one of the largest nickel deposits in the world and has been mining nickel ore in an open pit since 2005. The transition from opencast to underground mining involves the development of two underground mines, the Ridxi Mine and the Dongyuan (Eastern Deeps) Mine, which will extend the life of the Vale mine in the Labrador area and peak annual production of 2.6 million tons of nickel ore (40,000 tons of nickel in the concentrate) by 2025, while increasing the annual production of by-product copper and cobalt to 20, 000 tons and 2600 tons, respectively. The project has been completed by 65 per cent and capital expenditure of US $1.26 billion has been implemented. Dongyuan Mine is expected to go into production in 2022.
"our operations in Vois Bay and throughout Newfoundland and Labrador combine indigenous participation, economic capacity-building and security performance, which is an amazing process." Mark Travers (Mark Travers), executive vice president of Vale's base metals business, said.
The Vois Bay Mine has repeatedly won the John T. Ryan (John T. Ryan) Award, which honors the safest mining areas in Canada. In 2021, Vois Bay won the honor again. Despite the unprecedented challenges posed by the COVID-19 epidemic, the Vois Bay mine expansion project has not slackened, achieving a record of zero work injury since construction began in 2018 when the first batch of nickel ore was produced.
Aboriginal participation is another bright spot in the Vois Bay mining area. The Vois Bay mine has established a partnership with its indigenous partner, the Government of Nunaziya Ford in the Inu Autonomous region, and the mine complex is located on the traditional land of the Inu indigenous people. Since the launch of the Vois Bay mine expansion project in 2018, the employment of the Inu and Nunaziya Ford Inu has more than doubled to about 500, and 65% of the procurement contracts for the project have been signed with indigenous enterprises. After the realization of underground mining and mineral processing, Vale will continue to create local employment, procurement and capacity-building opportunities for many years to come, sharing benefits with indigenous peoples.
Nickel ore from Voyce Bay will be processed at Vale's Changgang plant, one of the lowest nickel concentrators in the world. As industry strives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint, nickel, copper and cobalt produced in a sustainable and responsible manner will help meet customer needs in new energy vehicles and clean energy.
The first nickel ore from the Vois Bay mine expansion project reflects Vale's commitment to continuously supply quality, predictable and responsible raw materials to the market while giving priority to safety, capacity-building and indigenous participation.
