Canadian mining company Inco Ltd announced yesterday that its mines and processing plants are operating at their usual efficiency three weeks after the end of the strike that shut them down, although pgm targets have been reduced.

A spokesman for the company, Cory McPhee, said the production situation for the world's second largest nickel and important pgm producer was essentially as expected after the 13-week stoppage.

'We're essentially on schedule with what we expected. Commissioning issues are not unusual from a cold startup. We resolved them and are ramping up to full production.'

The company had expected that it would take at least a fortnight for full production levels to be achieved after the 3,300 workers returned to their posts following the signing of a three-year labour agreement.

A plan to produce 400,000 ounces of platinum group metals during 2004 has now been revised down to 365,000 ounces.