Vale SA said that it stopped output at its Thompson nickel mine and processing plant on August 1st 2009 for scheduled maintenance, bringing its entire Canadian nickel operations to a halt.

The one month maintenance stop at Thompson started the same day that a strike halted production at the company’s Voisey’s Bay nickel plant in Newfoundland. Workers at Sudbury, Vale’s nickel operation in Ontario, have been on strike since July 13th 2009.

Mr Cory McPhee spokesman of Vale said that "Thompson isn’t under negotiations for contract renewal so we expect it to come back into production normally on September 1st 2009."

In 2008, Vale produced 275,400 tonnes of nickel, of which 191,700 tonnes came from the three Canadian sites. Thompson provided 28,900 tonnes of the Canadian total.

(Sourced from www.bloomberg.net)