Canadian miners reduce nickel production

Purchasing.com (May 15, 2009) – Vale Inco has extended a planned three-week scheduled maintenance shutdown at its Sudbury, Ont., mining and Port Colborne, Ont., refinery operations by an additional eight weeks through the end of July. Xstrata Nickel recently decided to shutter all former Falconbridge mining operations in Sudbury, except for a development mine that won’t reach full production until 2010. Another producer, FNX, has suspended its nickel production after the sharp drop in the metal’s price made operations uneconomical.