A smelter takes shape: Vale's nickel refinery in Newfoundland

Globe and Mail Update

Published Friday, Dec. 16, 2011 8:00PM EST

Last updated Monday, Jan. 30, 2012 6:39PM EST

As a $3-billion smelter rises on the shores of Placentia Bay, Vale SA scours the country for skilled workers to finish the job.

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(Greg Locke For The Globe and Mail) Hide caption

Rinaldo Stefan, construction project manager for Vale SA's huge nickel processor in Newfoundland, is scouring the country to find workers to get the job done over the next two years. If he must, he says, he'll "go offshore to find people."
(Greg Locke For The Globe and Mail) Hide caption

Vale SA's sprawling, $3-billion refinery on Placentia Bay will eventually produce 50,000 tonnes of nickel a year, mined from Voisey's Bay in Labrador.
(Greg Locke For The Globe and Mail) Hide caption

The company's difficulties in finding emough workers to get the job done on time, and on budget, reflects structural problems in the province's labour market.
(Greg Locke For The Globe and Mail) Hide caption

Like other employers in the province, Vale says it can't compete with the wages and benefits being offered in the Alberta oil fields, a magnet for young Newfoundlanders.
(Greg Locke For The Globe and Mail) Hide caption

The refinery complex is sited on the shore of Long Harbour, about 100 kilometres west of St. John's.
(Greg Locke For The Globe and Mail) Hide caption

Workers pour concrete for the nickel smelter. Vale is advertising across Canada for employees, aiming to increase the workforce to 3,500 by next summer.
(Greg Locke For The Globe and Mail) Hide caption

Workers are completing the frames of nearly a dozen buildings that will be part of the nickel refinery.
(Greg Locke For The Globe and Mail) Hide caption

Exterior cladding goes on one of the mammoth buildings.
(Greg Locke For The Globe and Mail) Hide caption

Iron girders are positioned atop one of the smelter buildings.
(Greg Locke For The Globe and Mail) Hide caption

Workers are bathed in sunlight as they work on the interior frame of a building.
(Greg Locke For The Globe and Mail) Hide caption

Fuelled by mining and offshore oil, the province has one of the best growth stories in Canada. But looming megaprojects will strain its work force.

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