Suppliers News (May 22, 2006)

Inco to build ‘utility nickel’ plant in China

Toronto-based Inco (N-T, N-N) has hired engineering firm Posco E&C of Beijing to build a “utility nickel” plant in China. The refined form of nickel is designed for the special needs of China’s fast-growing stainless steel market.

The US$63-million plant will begin supplying Chinese stainless steel makers sometime in the first half of 2008. Construction will start later this year.

“With China poised to become the world’s number one stainless steel producer, this new facility puts us in the right place, at the right time,” says Peter Goudie, Inco’s executive vice-president of marketing.

Goudie says his company wants a greater foothold in China, not only as a seller of nickel — but as a manufacturer. “Inco is committed to being close to its customers,” he adds.

The plant will be built in Dalian, Liaoning province, where Inco already operates a nickel shearing and packaging facility, as well as a nickel foam plant. Inco’s other Chinese operations include a nickel salts refinery in Kunshan City, Jiangsu province, and another nickel foam business in Shenyang, in northern China.

The Dalian plant will produce about 32,000 tonnes of utility nickel each year. Feed, consisting of intermediate forms of nickel, will be supplied largely by Inco’s Goro nickel mine in New Caledonia. The operation will be owned and operated by Inco New Nickel Materials (Dalian) Co., a Sino-foreign joint venture in which Inco indirectly holds a 97% stake. Inco’s Chinese partner, Ningbo Sunhu Chemical Products, holds the rest.

Utility nickel is currently manufactured by Korea Nickel, one quarter of which is held by Inco, and Taiwan Nickel Refining Corp., in which Inco holds a 49.9% stake.

Inco is said to be courting investors for the project, including Sumitomo Metal Mining (STMNF-O) and Mitsui & Co. (MITSY-Q), the nickel giant’s partners at Goro.

Meanwhile, Inco has an agreement with Taiyuan Iron and Steel Corp., China’s largest manufacturer of stainless steel, to possibly build a second utility nickel plant in China. The plant would be near TISCO’s operations in Taiyuan, Shanxi province.

Klohn Crippen Alberta bound

International engineering and environmental consulting firm Klohn Crippen Berger has acquired IEG Energy Services, an aboriginal-owned environmental firm based in Calgary, Alta., to boost its presence in that province and in Canada’s Far North.

The deal includes IEG subsidiary KBL Land Use Consulting.

“We welcome our new employees and their extensive experience,” says Bryan Watts, president and CEO of Klohn Crippen Berger.

The firm plans to market its services through IEG Consultants, a joint venture with the Inuvialuit Development Corp., in Canada’s Arctic.

Klohn Crippen Berger’s environmental services include permitting, baseline studies, air and soil assessments, mine waste management, and mine-site reclamation, among others.

Klohn Crippen Berger offers engineering and environmental services to the mineral exploration, oil and gas, power, and water resources sectors.

Wardrop to study Tulsequah Chief

Redcorp Ventures (RDV-T, RDFVF-O) and its wholly owned subsidiary Redfern Resources, has hired Wardrop Engineering to conduct an updated feasibility study on the Tulsequah Chief project in B.C.

The work started in mid-May and will review and update existing engineering and design studies from a feasibility study completed by Rescan Engineering in 1995 and updated in 1997.

Engineer Rod Giles will oversee and co-ordinate Wardrop’s work and any additional consultants needed to finish the study on schedule. Giles worked with Redfern management when he was with Sutton Resources at the Bulyanhulu gold mine in Tanzania, and later at the Ona-Puma nickel-laterite project in Brazil.

Tulsequah Chief is a polymetallic copper-lead-zinc-gold-silver massive sulphide deposit in northwestern British Columbia, south of the community of Atlin. A resource calculation compliant with National Instrument 43-101 was published in February 2005.

Tulsequah received its project approval certificate from the B.C. government in 2002, and an amended screening-level environmental assessment approval from the federal government in July 2005. The project had been delayed by local protests.

Underground drilling in six holes started in late April at Tulsequah to infill the remaining gaps in the upper part of the deposit.

The drilling should be done by the end of May, at which time a second phase — 17,000 metres of drilling — will begin to expand existing resources.

The feasibility study will review and update all aspects of the project, including waste handling and storage, tailings impoundment, power and electrical distribution, milling, processing and concentrate storage and transportation. It should be completed by year-end.

Wardrop has its headquarters in Mississauga, Ont., with an office in Vancouver.

The firm offers mine feasibility, geotechnical engineering, metallurgical and process engineering and other studies related to mining and the environment.