Vale Base Metals has announced the successful completion of the cobalt throughput test at its Voisey’s Bay mine, with the operation achieving an average throughput rate of 93.7% over a 90-day period. The throughput test, a requirement under the Voisey’s Bay streaming agreement with Wheaton Precious Metals Corp and Ecora Resources PLC, required Voisey’s Bay to maintain an average throughput rate of at least 85% of capacity over 90 consecutive days.
“This is a meaningful achievement for Voisey’s Bay,” said Shaun Usmar, Chief Executive Officer of Vale Base Metals. “It puts an exclamation point on the operation’s successful transition to underground mining, showing that Voisey’s Bay is not only meeting its planned production rate, but is exceeding it.”
Usmar continued: “I want to acknowledge and thank Roberto Damasceno, Pieter Loock, and the entire Voisey’s Bay team for their hard work and dedication in getting us to this important milestone. This is another example of how Vale Base Metals is transforming into a safe, reliable, cost competitive operator that delivers on its targets and commitments.”
Voisey’s Bay entered production in 2005 as an open pit mine. In late 2024, it completed a multi-year expansion that transitioned the operation to underground mining, ensuring Voisey’s Bay will continue to serve as an important engine of economic growth in Newfoundland & Labrador and provider of low-carbon, high-quality nickel, copper, and cobalt for many years to come.
A key part of the transition to underground mining was the successful commissioning of a new bulk material handling system at the Eastern Deeps underground mine in November 2024. This new system was the final major deliverable of the Voisey’s Bay Mine Expansion (VBME) Project, and allowed ore at Eastern Deeps to be transferred from underground to the surface via conveyor instead of trucks. This change significantly increased the volume and speed of ore transportation, enhancing operational efficiency. The completion marked a new era for the Voisey’s Bay operation, enabling it to process high-grade underground ore more effectively and attain full milling capacity.
Innu Inuit Redpath Limited Partnership (IIR) has also been a major contributor to VBME. IIR is a strategic partnership between Redpath, Innu Development Limited Partnership and Nunatsiavut Group of Companies. IIR has been at Voisey’s Bay since 2018, developing the two new mines – Eastern Deeps and Reid Brook – which included four portals, approximately 13 kms of drifts and permanent underground infrastructure. The project was officially completed in December 2024. Reid Brook is closest to surface and ore is transported on a decline by truck. At Eastern Deeps the conveyor system moves ore to surface.
Redpath in its February 2025 newsletter includes some more detail on the Eastern Deeps system. The truck dump for the rock breaker/grizzly is at the 700 level – this feeds a rock box from which the coarse ore bin feeds into apron feeder. The box is made up of eight 10-ton panels, which had to be placed onto the support stand in a very tight area. Very complex coordination was needed for the installation to take place. This feeds a sizer on the 730 level – which is distinctive as the ore sizer unit travels on rails, which had to be installed with a 1 mm level tolerance.
The sizer product feeds the fine ore bin at Level 760 where the ore is transferred by a chute onto a vibrating feeder and is dumped onto a picking belt to separate metals and other potential waste materials, prior to being conveyed onto the first main inclined conveyor which feeds ore to the transfer station on level 515. This is where IC1, a 1.8 km long conveyor system, changes direction by 180 degrees and continues to surface on IC2, a 2.2 km long conveyor, and feeds the stacker. The excavation was massive, high and wide, to accommodate the two belts and all the steel structure required for the location where the two belts intersect, and where the ore transfer chute was installed.
