Vale-Glencore Sudbury merger talks to start in new year

Vale will start formal negotiations early next year with Glencore Xstrata Plc to combine their Sudbury operations, according to a report from Bloomberg.

Peter Poppinga, Vale's executive director for base metals, said in a conference call that the two companies will work to jointly operate nickel mines, mills and smelters in Sudbury.

“We now find there’s a healthy environment for this kind of discussion with Glencore,” Murilo Ferreira, Vale's CEO, said in the conference call. “We always worked with the possibility of having an unincorporated joint venture in Sudbury.”

Rick Bertrand, president of United Steelworkers Local 6500, previously told Northern Life it is too early to speculate on how a Sudbury merger between both companies could affect the local workforces.

“All I know is that they (Vale) are hiring,” Bertrand said. “Vale has been hiring miners and they've been hiring maintenance people, so it's tough to say at this point in time if there are going to be any cuts.”