CP - Brazilian miner Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD) will spend (US) $477 million on maintenance at its Canadian operations in 2007, "stay-in-business" funding that will be used to revamp the aging assets it acquired when it took over Inco last year.
The money, about 28 percent of CVRD's planned global capital spending for the year, was allocated to the former Inco properties around Sudbury "given the age of these operations and the low level of investment in the period 2003-2005 – an annual average of (US) $208 million," CVRD said Friday in a statement.
"These investments are important for the conservation of these operations and extending their useful life. In addition to considerable quantities of nickel production, in the case of the Ontario operation, there is also production of copper, cobalt, platinum group metals, gold and silver."
CVRD plans to spend a total of $6.3 billion during the year, $1.8 billion higher than its 2006 spending of $4.5 billion, excluding acquisitions. Of the 2007 spending, $4.6 billion or 73.2 percent will go toward organic growth.
Earlier this month, Inco shareholders voted in favour of amalgamating the nickel producer with Itabira Canada Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of CVRD, after the completion of its $19-billion takeover of Toronto-based Inco.
