Newfoundland nickel processing plant uses cleaner technology

Vale Long Harbour Processing Plant

No more smelter or smokestacks. The Vale Long Harbour Processing Plant being built in Newfoundland uses a hydrometallurgical process to process raw concentrate into refined products such as nickel, copper and cobalt. Stantec provided geotechnical, materials and quality control services for a five year project. Our client Vale asked us to source local labor, materials, and equipment whenever possible—a boom to the economy. 

Testing concrete, grout, asphalt, aggregate and soils was our major focus. We used an on-site fully equipped mobile laboratory with additional testing in our St. John’s lab. We cast 1200 sets of concrete cylinders and 950 sets of grout/mortar for testing, and conducted 1900 sieve analyses.

Quality assurance testing and inspection took place during the placement of mass structural backfill and the building of footings, foundations and buildings.

Ore will come from Vale’s Voisey’s Bay mine, but the plant’s smoke-free refining process may attract other business. The project created 2,000-3,000 construction jobs and 500 permanent jobs.