The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry.
VANCOUVER — Twenty years after Diamond Fields Resources discovered nickel in at Voisey’s Bay in Labrador and eight years after Vale (NYSE: VALE) predecessor Inco started mining, work is now wrapping up on a state-of-the-art hydrometallurgical facility that will process the mine’s rich nickel–copper–cobalt ore without smelting it.
Vale has been sending ore from its open-pit Voisey’s Bay mine to its smelters in Sudbury, Ont., and Thompson, Man. Starting early next year those long hauls will be over, replaced by shipments to a new facility in Long Harbour, 100 km west of St. John’s, N.L. — keeping a promise made to the provincial government that Voisey’s Bay ore or its equivalent would be refined in-province.
Cutting back on haulage is just one advantage. More important is the new facility design, which represents the first time hydromet technology will be used on a large scale to produce nickel.
Hydrometallurgy uses water, oxygen, solvents and high pressure to dissolve a metal from its ore, or from a concentrate or intermediate product, such as matte (the product of smelting).