A “couple hundred” replacement workers hired by contractors will help to bring Creighton and Coleman mines into full production by the end of June, according to Vale Inco spokesperson Steve Ball.
Ball said the company is currently “in the process of securing the help of other service providers.” He would not give the names of the contracting companies being hired, or even what cities these companies are based out of.
“We've had people in certain roles all along that have been provided by contractors in specialized roles,” he said.
“As we move forward, we are going to see more of those people, particularly in the mines. As we've said, we need the additional resources. Whether we've got people coming in right now, I can't confirm that.
“But I will say it shouldn't be unexpected that we do start seeing people coming into take the roles that we need them to work in.”
The company's production workers, about 2,900 members of Steelworkers Local 6500, have now been on strike for more than nine months.
Up until now, Vale Inco had been mining copper at Coleman and Garson mines. The company is now mining nickel instead of copper at Coleman Mine, and is no longer mining at Garson Mine, because it is currently interested in mining nickel.
Clarabelle Mill is also operating, along with one furnace at the Copper Cliff smelter.
Some of the nickel matte produced by the smelter has been shipped to the company's nickel refinery in Clydach, Wales, with the rest going into inventory. Vale Inco has done this mostly using Vale Inco workers not currently on strike.
Coleman Mine, along with Creighton Mine (which is not currently in production), will now be brought back into full production using the replacement workers, Ball said.
Although he did not have a specific timeline, Ball said the company is considering the possibility of bringing the second furnace at the Copper Cliff smelter back into production, and possibly even the Copper Cliff nickel refinery.
