Voisey’s Bay underground development hits 10% completion (CBC News Newfoundland and Labrador – August 28, 2019)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/

Workers staying on floating hotel while work on new living quarters underway

The quest to mine nickel from beneath the ground at Voisey’s Bay in Labrador is picking up steam with more than 430 workers on site. Joao Zanon, the project director for Vale, said the team ran into challenges in the early stages of the project during the harsh northern Labrador winter.

Once the snow melted and summer arrived, the project ramped up. A little over 10 per cent of the underground development is now complete, with a goal to be operational in the first half of 2020.

“We’ve picked up the development quite a lot in the past months and the speed will continue to increase as we … are able to mobilize more people to work underground,” Zanon said.

A nickel deposit was discovered at Voisey’s Bay, just south of Nain, in 1993. It wasn’t until 2005 that surface mining got underway. Last year, Premier Dwight Ball announced the mine would be going underground to extend its life.

CBC News reported soon after that Vale helped finance the $1.7-billion expansion by selling future production of cobalt, which will be a byproduct of the mine and a metal used for electric-vehicle batteries.

For the rest of this article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/voiseys-bay-underground-iron-ore-1.5262346