EDITORIAL PAGE — A good deal for Canada

Inco’s recent decision to acquire a 30% direct and indirect interest in the Voisey Bay project is an extraordinary deal for Diamond Fields Resources, which retains a majority stake in the deposit and surrounding claims.

It is a good deal, too, for Inco, which acquired the interest in order to retain its position as the world’s leading producer of nickel. Although it did not secure a majority interest, or the degree of control that it is perhaps used to having with a junior partner, the company still holds a sizable position in a project expected to become the Western World’s lowest-cost nickel producer.

Inco will market all of the nickel and cobalt under a long-term agreement, and thereby strengthen its position in the marketing side of the nickel business. And because the surrounding land package has been barely explored, the major is positioned to benefit in the event that other deposits are found.

But the benefits of this deal go well beyond those that will flow to the bottom line of Inco or Diamond Fields. Voisey Bay has the potential to make a significant contribution to the economy of Newfoundland, a region which has traditionally suffered from high unemployment.

Newfoundland Premier Clyde Wells clearly understands the benefits Voisey Bay will bring to his province and, in particular, to the Innu and Inuit communities near Voisey Bay that have been suffering from a lack of job opportunities.

Liberal Cabinet Minister Brian Tobin, who spent part of his youth in Labrador, will likely be a strong advocate for the project at the federal level. For both levels of government, Voisey Bay is a godsend.

The discovery drives home the point that wealth is not created by politicians, but rather by risk-takers and entrepreneurs. It also shows, yet again, that mining is not a sunset industry in Canada.