Market sources said that the production of non-refined nickel plus cobalt started to recover in Cuba last month following perhaps the worst performance exhibited by the sector in last 10 years due to the fact that output had declined to lesser than 70,000 tons. The director of state monopoly watchdog said that production in January was 4% higher than the planned levels. Government has not announced 2011 plan so far, which considers nickel a strategic sector and a target of US sanctions.
Minister of economy of the country has said that 2010 was a bad performance year for the industry as it failed to meet its production and export planned costing the country approximately US$120 million. Government had not revealed its goals for the year 2010 publicly after 2009 production weighed in at 70,100 tons only. It is believed that Cuba produced 70,400 tons of non-refined nickel and cobalt during 2008. This makes an average of 74,000 tons to 75,000 tons for the last decade.
Cubaniquel, a popular manufacturer in the country, operates three processing plants in Holguin. Two of them are under full on the shape of the country while the third one is a joint venture with a Canadian mining company named Sherritt International. It should be noted that non-refined nickel plus cobalt is so far leading export commodity of Cuba and almost all of the exports go to Canada and China.
According to the ministry of basic industries of the country, the Caribbean island is the biggest nickel producing region in the world supplying almost 10% of the total supply of the commodity in the world. Nickel industry of Cuba has faced several investigations during the last year resulting in a rest of some plant managers and some government officials.
Nickel is mandatory for producing stainless steel and several other corrosion resistant alloys. Cobalt is the essential for the production of super alloys required by products like aircraft engines. The nickel produced by Cuba is considered class II product with average 90% nickel content.
National Minerals Resource Center has said that Eastern Holguin province holds more than 30% of non-nickel reserves in the world while there are several other sites in the country with smaller reserves. （GSW Reports）
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