Vale confirmed on Wednesday (5th May) that it suffered sizable pgm production declines on a year-on-year basis in the first quarter of 2010.

The world's largest iron ore miner saw platinum output slump by 97.1 per cent, while palladium production fell by 93.6 per cent and gold output dropped by 81.3 per cent.

In addition, the company revealed that nickel output slipped from 65,000 tonnes to 33,000 tonnes, with copper production also falling by 52.4 per cent to 34,000 tonnes.

Vale attributed the poor performance to the closure of its Sudbury and Voisey Bay operations during the third quarter of 2009 as a result of labour strikes.

Production has now partially restarted at both facilities, with the latter functioning on a two-week on, two-week off basis.

Despite these concerns, the firm is bullish about the future of the pgm market, predicting "a very promising scenario for the metals and mining industry in the short as well as in the long term".

Based in Brazil, Vale is the second-largest mining company in the world and purchased Inco in 2006 in order to decrease its dependence on the iron ore business.

Source:

Vale foresees 'very promising scenario' for metals and mining (06/05/10)

© Adfero Ltd