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| Last updated at 3:55 PM on 18/02/08 |
Demo plant closing end of June 
BY ELIZABETH MACDONALD WITH FILES FROM THE TELEGRAM
The Charter
The closure of Vale Inco’s hydrometallugical demonstration plant in Argentia at the end of June is sure to have a financial impact on the area, but Placentia Mayor Bill Hogan and Placentia-St. Bride’s MHA Felix Collins agree the future benefits will be great.
Mayor Hogan said the closure would take six or seven million dollars out of the local economy when it closes which will certainly be felt by the business community.
“The area, the municipality is not going to reap the benefits of having a hundred or more people earning up to five million dollars in the next year or two years,” said Mayor Hogan.
He said the plant had committed to looking into other uses for the plant to keep it open but that just didn’t work out.
It won’t be long before that site is in use again to retrain employees heading to work at the commercial site in Long Harbour.
“All the employees are going to be all rehired and brought back there in a year or two and there is going to be an additional 200 people hired that will have to go down there and do their training for a year or so before they go to actually work at the commercial plant. So while it is sad news, we are not losing out totally. I think in the long term it will pay off.”
MHA Felix Collins said it was a disappointment that the plant will close but he understands the reasons for the decision.
“The development agreement with Inco doesn’t address the issue at all and the plant was only open to do the research on the hydromet technology and that will be completed so there was no business case for Inco to keep the plant open,” stated Mr. Collins, noting the only powers government had in the situation were the powers of persuasion, which did not work in this instance.
“It wasn’t unexpected. It is always a shock, though, when people get their notices. I personally was hoping to get it open until 2009 so that you could bridge the gap between the closing of that plant and getting the shovels in the ground for the main plant. That would have been nice but now there is a time lag and that is a concern.”
But, said Mr. Collins, some important work had been done there and the area should be proud of that.
“The thing is that hydromet technology was developed in Argentia and it is unique to Argentia, it is a product of Argentia, a product of its employees and they are a vital part of the Inco operation.”
He said he hopes Inco will be able to retain those employees for the opening of the commercial plant in the next few years.
“It will be a couple of lean years unfortunately and we are going to have to suck it up until the new plant is built. And Inco is firm in its commitment to the new plant. I don’t think there is any doubt about that,” said Mr. Collins.
“Businesses are in this for the bottom line, for profit, and there has to be a business case for this kind of stuff and Inco does not see a business case … in Argentia. It’s as simple as that.”
The plant opened in October 2005 for research and development leading up to the commercial nickel processing plant in Long Harbour, expected to be operational by 2011.
There are 130 workers at the demonstration plant.
The employees of the demonstration plant have received letters of offer to work at the Long Harbour facility when it opens. In the meantime, they've been offered jobs as part of the transition team, in Goro, Indonesia, and at Vale Inco plants in Thompson, Man., and Sudbury, Ont.
Construction on a commercial plant is scheduled to begin in 2009.
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18/02/08
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