Vale Inco COO says Sudbury to see sustainable growth.

• Author: Stewart, Nick
• Position: MINING

In the year he's been with Vale Inco as its COO, the thing that's most struck Parviz Farsangi about the company is its unwavering commitment to ensuring its aggressive growth is kept sustainable.

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Speaking to a crowd of more than 100 at the Sudbury branch of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) on Sept. 11, Farsangi emphasized the stronger emphasis Vale Inco is putting on remaining in its member communities for the long haul. The idea is to remain competitive at any nickel price, he says.

"I'm not saying we get it right every time, but everything is focused on sustainable, long-term, balanced growth and not short-term, thinking. I've been around, and the intensity of this process is unique. Not that it was bad before, but it's quite a bit more focused and quite a bit more intense."

Having spent many years in senior management positions with Timmins in Sudbury with Falconbridge Limited, Farsangi hailed the experience and infrastructure of the Sudbury camp as being key to accomplishing some of these goals. However, he quickly added that the roads could be a bit better, to raucous laughter from the crowd.

Another element of maintaining the health of its assets in the Sudbury camp is the flurry of investments the company has made, making local activity the busiest it's ever been, he says. These include the development of the ramp at the Garson Mine, the new Totten Mine, development of the Coleman 170 orebody, and other potential projects such as increasing reserves at Creighton, and the feasibility of Copper Cliff Deep. All told, the company has $600 million in capital expenditures in the Sudbury camp this year.

Local operations are still on pace to meet its production target of 298 million pounds of nickel through 2008. This marks the upward swing of production the camp has seen in the...