Cuba launches program with Canadian firm to increase nickel and cobalt production

Cuba launches program with Canadian firm to increase nickel and cobalt
production
13:58:00 EDT Apr 19, 2006

HAVANA (AP) - Cuba, among the world's largest nickel and cobalt
producers, has launched a program with Canadian mining firm Sherritt
International Corp. (TSX:S) to increase output by about half to 49,000
tonnes annually, state media said Wednesday.

The government's Cubaniquel and Sherritt are now in the "construction
phase" of their expanded production program at the Moa mining facility
in the eastern province of Holguin, the Communist Party newspaper Granma
reported.

The daily quoted Cuban Basic Industries Minister Yadira Garcia as saying
that the expanded production program was "the toughest goal the
Canadians and the Cubans have faced" in the mining program.

According to Cuban figures released when the plan was announced a year
ago, the expansion will increase nickel and cobalt production at the
plant by around 50 per cent, from about 35,000 tonnes in 2004.

Nickel is needed to produce stainless steel and cobalt is used for
creating alloys necessary for jet engines and in high technology components.

The $450-million-US expansion project was announced in Havana in March
2005 by Cuban President Fidel Castro and Sherritt International
President Ian Delaney.

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/business/060419/b041940.html