Province Provides Three-Week Extension to Vale Inco

The Provincial Government announced today that it is providing a three-week extension to Vale Inco on the deadline for submitting its final implementation plan for the construction of the hydromet commercial processing facility at Long Harbour.

Under the 2002 Development Agreement, the company was to have submitted its implementation plan on December 31, 2008. The Provincial Government is extending the deadline for submission of the final plan to January 22, 2009, to provide an opportunity for further discussion with the company on its contents.

�We have had initial conversations with the company and there are some aspects of the proposed plan that require further discussion and this extension gives us the flexibility to do that,� said the Honourable Kathy Dunderdale, Minister of Natural Resources.

The extension only provides additional time for the submission of an implementation plan and it does not affect other aspects of the agreement or operations at the Voisey�s Bay mine. Nickel concentrate is not scheduled to be shipped out during this three-week period.

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Media contact:
Tracy Barron
Director of Communications
Department of Natural Resources
709-729-5282, 690-8241
tracybarron@gov.nl.ca

2008 12 31                 1:55 p.m.