Global slump prompts 1-month shutdown for Voisey's Bay mine
Mining giant Vale Inco said Thursday it will shut down production at the massive Voisey's Bay nickel mine in Labrador next summer, in response to a sudden downturn in the global marketplace.
Vale Inco said it will shut down the mine as well as an adjacent processing mill for all of July.
"We're taking one month [of] production out of the equation," Cory McPhee, director of external communications with Vale Inco, told CBC News Thursday.
McPhee said the company would try to minimize the effect on employees.
"We'll be asking employees to schedule vacation during that period," McPhee said.
"We think we will be able to manage that with a minimal amount of impact on the employee."
McPhee added that the Voisey's Bay mine, which has been in production since November 2005, operates with crews working on a fly-in, fly-out basis, for two-week stints each. He said the company's plan is to effectively skip two cycles next summer.
About 500 workers will be asked to take their vacations during that period.
Boyd Bussey, an official with the United Steelworkers union, said the company's decision appears to mean that workers will not lose money.
However, Bussey said he is concerned that the shutdown may last longer than a month, should demand for nickel weaken even further.
"It's easy to shut it down, but it's always difficult getting it started back up again," Bussey told CBC News.
"If it's just a month, like they're talking about, that's fine, but if it gets extended, well, then we've got problems.
McPhee said the company can not promise, at this point, that any production slowdowns will be limited to the one-month shutdown.
"You know, these are based on the conditions as they exist today," he said.
"Nobody has a crystal ball as to what will happen in 2009. And we will continue to monitor the market." Vale Inco managers were meeting with mine workers on Thursday to answer questions about the logistics of the July shutdown.
Vale Inco's decision comes less than a month after it announced it will build a $2-billion plant at Long Harbour, in southern Newfoundland, to process nickel concentrate from Voisey's Bay.