UPDATE 1-FNX Mining says completes ore delivery to Xstrata
Wed Sep 23, 2009 11:16am EDT
* Says shipped 157,000 tons of ore to Xstrata Nickel
* Says to start shipping ore to Vale Inco shortly
* Shares up 5 percent
Sept 23 (Reuters) - FNX Mining Co Inc (FNX.TO) said it shipped about 157,000 tons of ore to Xstrata Nickel's Sudbury processing facilities by August end, completing its requirements under the temporary off-take agreement with the unit of Xstrata Plc (XTA.L).
FNX, which has produced solely from Sudbury, the historic Canadian nickel-mining region dominated by Brazil's Vale (VALE5.SA) and Swiss-based Xstrata, signed an off-take agreement with Xstrata to process FNX's ore earlier this year.
Since the beginning of September FNX has continued mining operations as planned and has been stockpiling the ore mined at its Podolsky and McCreedy West mines for future processing at Vale Inco Ltd's -- a wholly owned subsidiary of Vale -- Sudbury facilities, FNX said.
FNX said it was notified by Vale Inco, under the terms of its off-take agreement with that company, to begin delivery of the stockpiled ore and all future daily production to Vale Inco's Clarabelle Mill.
The company said it plans to resume ore deliveries -- suspended on May 31 due to a maintenance shutdown and labor disruption at Vale Inco's Sudbury operations -- to the Clarabelle Mill shortly.
The nickel and copper miner also said development work on the LFD deposit and Podolsky mine continued as planned and remained on schedule.
Shares of the Toronto-based company rose as much as 5 percent to C$9.62 before paring some gains and were up 21 Canadian cents at C$9.39 in late morning trade Wednesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Isheeta Sanghi in Bangalore; Editing by Unnikrishnan Nair)
