It’s believed investment could expand mine’s lifespan by 25 to 30 years
The operators of the Vale nickel mine in Thompson, Man., are hoping a $1-billion investment could extend the mine’s life span by 25 to 30 years. Gary Eyres, head of Vale’s Manitoba operations, said the mine’s team has been stepping up its exploration efforts, including aerial and magnetic surveys, and believes there are large enough ore deposits to warrant the investment.
Eyres says he’s confident that somewhere along the Thompson nickel belt is the equivalent of another mine “just waiting to be found.” They want to be able to present their case for it in the next six to 12 months to the company’s owners in Brazil, Eyres said
“Everything that I’m doing at the moment and our teams here in Thompson are doing at the moment, is we’re focusing only on when this happens, rather than if it happens,” he said.
“We need to be positive about it and what we’re doing is getting all of our existing assets into that condition so that we can we can begin immediately once we get approval.” The money would be invested in assets that would help enhance the mine’s output, Eyres said.
If nothing is done, and the company continues with its current mining operations, it would have a much shorter life span, of about five to eight years, he said. “That’s not something that we’re we’re even considering at the moment,” he said.
For the rest of this article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/vale-mine-exploration-thompson-1.5362181