Vale is spending $150 million on the first phase of the Thompson mine extension project, which will extend current mining activities by 10 years, the company announced June 29.
“Aggressive” exploration drilling of known orebodies is also continuing, which could mean ore extraction could continue well past 2040, Vale says.
Work to be completed during the first phase of the project includes construction of new ventilation raises and fans, increasing backfill capacity and adding power distribution infrastructure. Vale expects the changes to improve current production levels by 30 per cent.
“We see the lighting of a path forward to a sustainable and prosperous future for Vale Base Metals in Manitoba,” said Gary Annett, who recently took over from Franco Cazzola as general manager of Vale’s Manitoba Operations and is speaking to the Thompson Chamber of Commerce June 30.
Warren Luky, president of United Steelworkers Local 6166, which represents about 500 hourly workers at Vale Manitoba Operations, said the infrastructure improvements are welcome, even if they are scaled back from what previous extension projections called for.
“It’s going to bring much-needed ventilation for our workers underground who have been working at the end of the ventilation cycle in our mine,” he told the Thompson Citizen, noting that the approved project provides about 66 per cent of the ventilation that was included in previous plans. “It’ll happen faster which is very important for everybody working underground. We are hampered by the limits of ventilation. There’s only so much air you can push down to keep enough clean breathable air for people working underground."
Power improvements will provide the electricity needed to push the mine deeper and the increased backfill will fill up voids and keep ground conditions stable.
“That limits how fast and how much you can mine and progress underground,” Luky said.
Vale previously committed $23 million towards diamond drilling to determine the precise extent of the footwall deep and hanging wall ore body, Cazzola told the chamber in February. Some of that money was also used to build a road out to where a new ventilation raise will go
“This $150 million investment is just one part of our ambitious Thompson turnaround story. It is an indicator of our confidence in a long future for the Thompson operations,” said Vale chief operating officer for North Atlantic base metals operations Dino Otranto. “Active collaboration between our design team, technical services, USW Local 6166, and our entire Thompson workforce has delivered a safe, efficient and fit-for-purpose plan that will enable us to extract the Thompson nickel resources for many years to come.”
The large investment comes after massive layoffs and the permanent shutdown of the Thomson smelter and refinery in 2018, which reduced extraction costs that Cazzola said in February would make the project financially viable
“This is the largest single investment we have made in our Thompson operations in the past two decades,” said Vale executive vice-president for base metals Mark Travers. “It is significant news for our employees, for the Thompson community and for the province of Manitoba. The global movement to electric vehicles, renewable energies and carbon reduction has shone a welcome spotlight on nickel – positioning the metal we mine as a key contributor to a greener future and boosting world demand. We are proud that Thompson can be part of that future and part of the low-carbon solution.”
Luky said the approval of the extension project, which has been talked about for more than a decade, was a long time coming and was good news for his members still working at the mine and Thompson as a whole.
“It’s good to hear that Vale’s finally going to invest in the future of the mine here in Thompson and it gives us more horizon on the closure date. Now people know that there’s some security for the future so that they can make decisions for their lives, whether that’s staying in their home, not looking for a different job. It’s good news for a lot of people. We hope it’s a positive future outcome for everybody because we all have homes here, we have families here and we all have our community here that we hold dear.”
The extension came too late for some workers who had to make decisions about whether to accept severance packages by June 1. Luky also said he would have liked to see more of the work to extend the mine life being done by mine employees.
“The amount of contractors on site is very frustrating, given that a lot of this capital work will go out to them and they’ve laid off local people.”
The Thompson orebody was discovered by Inco in 1956 and mining began in 1961.
Many people are predicting nickel prices will rise as electric vehicles capture more market share because it is an important component of the batteries used to power them.
