Brazilian miner Vale will invest an additional $500 million in its Vale New Caledonia (VNC) nickel operations in the South Pacific due to expectations of increased demand from rising electric vehicle (EV) output, chief executive officer Fabio Schvartsman said on Tuesday December 4.
"We will need all of the capacity of VNC to meet this demand," Schvartsman said.In two years, nickel output from VNC will increase to 50,000 tonnes per year, up from 35,000 tpy currently, the CEO told Fastmarkets following Vale's annual investor briefing at the New York Stock Exchange.The $500-million capital investment will be made between 2019 and 2022."We think it could become a very important part of our nickel business," Schvartsman said of VNC.During the presentation, Schvartsman announced an agreement with Glencore to explore two deposits in Sudbury, Canada - the Vale-owned Victor ore body and Glencore's Nickel Rim South.The partnership will cover commercial and engineering efforts. Studies on...