Joint venture with Canada to expand nickel production to 49,000 tons

AN ambitious program to expand the annual capacity of the Cuban-Canadian nickel plus cobalt joint venture to 49,000 tons per year has begun in the eastern province of Holguín.

On March 4, 2005 Granma daily ran an article on an agreement between the CUBANIQUEL Corporation and the Canadian company Sherritt International to increase productive capacity with capital from both partners.

Since then, Canadian and Cuban specialists have been working on projects, resulting in the inauguration yesterday, April 18, of the construction phase of this important program, at the Pedro Soto Alba joint venture in Moa (Holguín), as the closing edition of that newspaper reports.

The project includes a parallel expansion of the Nickel and Cobalt Joint Refinery, COREFCO, in Canada.

On the Cuban side, the event was attended by Yadira García, minister of basic industry; Marta Lomas, minister of foreign investment; Raúl de la Nuez, minister of foreign trade; and Fidel Figueroa, minister of construction, as well as provincial authorities and directors of the nickel industry.

The Canadian side was headed by Canadian Ian Delaney, president of the Sherritt International board of directors; Jowdat Waheed, its chief executive; and other company leaders.

Delaney expressed his and the company’s satisfaction at the beginning of works to expand the industry after the accumulation over the 15 years of Sherrit-CUBANIQUEL joint work.

The official described the Pedro Soto Alba joint enterprise as one of the most efficient nickel producers in the world.