Mining

The nearly 290 office, technical and professional workers at Vale Inco's Sudbury operations represented by United Steelworkers (USW) Local 2020 have voted 84.5 per cent to ratify a three-year offer put forward by the company.

Tito Martins sits back in his chair ready for the barrage of questions thrown at him from the media, extending his arms ahead and cupping his hands toward himself as if to say “Come on, I'm ready for you.

Vale Inco president and CEO Tito Martins seems puzzled as he speaks about the failure of recent negotiations with Steelworkers Local 6500 and the subsequent rejection of the company's contract offer by union members.

Sault Ste. Marie will never be confused or compared with the robust mining camps such as Sudbury, Timmins and Kirkland Lake – at least not yet.

With $375 million due to be spent during the next two years on building the Young-Davidson Mine near Kirkland Lake, Northgate Minerals is officially moving ahead this summer on its ambitious new gold mine.

Sudbury miner FNX Mining Company Inc. (TSX:FNX) and Vancouver-based Quadra Mining Inc. (TSX:QUA) have agreed to a merger of equals, creating an intermediate copper producer to be named Quadra FNX Mining Ltd.

When Brazil's Vale SA snapped up Inco for $19 billion in 2006, there was plenty of buzz as to what the mining giant would do with the 107-year old Canadian miner.

Vale Inco spokesman Steve Ball says he is not surprised United Steelworkers Local 6500 voted 88.7 per cent “no” on March 11 to a five year contract that would send employees back to work. “We are disappointed, but not surprised," Ball said.

Steelworkers Local 6500 president John Fera said he's happy his members supported the recommendation of the bargaining committee and voted 88.7 per cent in favour of rejecting a contract proposal from Vale Inco, March 11.

Once considered barren ground for gold, the west end of the Timmins camp has become a hotbed of activity with major exploration breakthroughs in recent years.