Vale in Sudbury is shuttering yet another section of its mining operations, this time it's Clarabelle Mill's crushing plant.
It was confirmed by Northern Ontario Business on Thursday that Vale was moving ahead with the closure. This coming on just months after the closure of the historic Stobie Mine, which the company said at the time was due to low metal prices and declining ore grades.
“Due to the fact that we are processing less ore as a result of the recent suspension of operations at Stobie Mine, we no longer require the crushing area within Clarabelle Mill,” Angie Robson, manager of corporate affairs for Ontario operations at Vale, stated in an e-mail. “Going forward, the plant will run as a SAG (semi-autonomous grinding) Mill only.”
She did confirm that 13 jobs will be affected, but no word has been if these means layoffs or employees moved to other departments. Employees at Stobie were absorbed into other departments
“Operations at the crushing area have been down for the past four months, and after a comprehensive review, a decision has been made to suspend operations in the area permanently.
This decision will affect approximately 13 jobs within the crushing area; however, to date we have not made any reductions to our workforce.”
Nickel prices have been hovering between $4 to $5. Vale took a major financial hit due to those low prices. In July, Vale's net income dropped drastically to $16 million from $1.1 billion in the same quarter a year earlier. The company plans to seek out copper mining options and stop expanding nickel production capacity.
