TORONTO will hold talks with striking union workers at its Voisey's Bay nickel mine in eastern Canada next week, and plans to boost production at the operation after a partial restart earlier this year, a company official said on Thursday.
"This was something that was done at the request of the unions and a couple of days have been set aside early next week to bring the teams together," spokesman Bob Carter said of the planned meeting.
Workers went on strike at Voisey's on Aug. 1, just two weeks after a parallel strike began at the company's larger operations in Sudbury, Ontario.
Voisey's Bay produced 77,500 tonnes of contained nickel and 55, 4000 tonnes of contained copper in 2008, the last year of uninterrupted production.
Vale resumed partial production at Voisey's earlier this year using non-union workers and outside contractors at an annualized rate of about 19,000 tonnes of nickel and 15,000 tonnes of copper.
Carter said Vale will now raise production but did not have the new targeted production levels.
No talks are currently scheduled to resolve the strike at the Sudbury operations.