Inco, province flash different signals on Voisey’s project

Optimistic statements yesterday by Newfoundland’s minister of mines and energy on the future of the Voisey’s Bay nickel project in Labrador were not echoed by project operator Inco (N-T).

Minister Lloyd Matthews, speaking to an audience at the St. Johns’ Board of Trade, said Inco and the provincial government had resolved “the vast majority” of their disagreements on the development of Voisey’s, which was discovered in 1994 but has not been brought into production.

Matthews said the final development would include a $750-million hydrometallurgical plant at Argentia, southwest of St. John’s.

Inco said only that it and the government had agreed to an extension of talks to year-end, and said that “the economic downturn and increased economic uncertainty” following terrorist attacks in the United States last month would be a factor in any production plan.

The company and the province have been in talks for over three years trying to work out an acceptable development plan for the project. The province insists that any project must include a plant to produce refined nickel; Inco has refused to commit to building anything more than the mine and mill unless the economics of a processing plant meet company criteria.