Brazilian miner Vale has reached a milestone by completing its first ore production from Canada’s underground Reid Brook deposit in Northern Labrador at its Voisey’s Bay mine expansion project.
Converting to an underground operation requires the expansion of two underground mines, Reid Brook along with Eastern Deeps mine which extends the mine life of Vale’s Labrador operations until 2032, at minimum.
The underground mines are anticipated to produce 40,000mt of nickel and 20,000mt of copper, both in concentrate, with the highest levels of yearly production volumes projected to reach 2.6mn mt by 2025. Commencement at the miner’s Eastern Deeps deposit is scheduled in 2022.
The project entails $1.26bn in capital spend and is 65pc complete.
Voisey’s Bay is among the largest global nickel resources, producing ore from open-pit processes since 2005.