Future so bright

It's been quite a ride over the last year and a half for Wabush Mines' vice president and general manager, Gino Levesque.

Only into his new position a week, the global recession forced the mining company to lay off more than 130 of its employees.

"We went through a very challenging year, or year and a half," he said in a telephone interview last Tuesday. "We certainly had to work as a team here and find new ways to work together to make sure we can achieve through the big challenges we had in front of us."

A big part of that teamwork, he said, yielded good negotiations and a five-year contract without much conflict earlier this winter.

Though the negotiations between the Steelworkers and Wabush Mines took a long time, the end result was a positive one, Levesque said, describing the contract as a win-win for both sides.

Rebounding nicely

Today Levesque says the industry has rebounded nicely. Not only does the Wabush mine operates with a full complement of workers again, but it will grow even more in the next year or so.

Cleveland Cliffs, one of the three prior owners of Wabush Mines, has taken 100 per cent ownership. Cliffs has gained the confidence of its shareholders-who will invest significantly over the next few years.

Significant investment

"What we are planning for the short term is to find ways to invest money into the mining operation," Levesque explained. "Right now we are working on a plan to invest $35 million in the next six to 12 months in order to help us to improve the output of the mine and improve the reliability of the equipment."

Further to that, he said, they are still working on the manganese separation project which will extend the life of the mine by another 10 years.

Manganese project

One line [for the manganese] has been installed over the winter and has been in operation for a couple of months now and everything seems to be working well with that.

The full project will require a total of eight lines, which will come at a cost of another $30 million.

"We ran the [one] line to see how it will work and the result is good," said Levesque of the manganese separation project. "From there we are working to justify the money [$30 million] in order to go ahead with the other seven lines."

If all goes as well as it has been, Levesque said he hopes an announcement will be made within a year on the entire project being funded and within two years to be in full operation.

"We still need to finalize some stuff but that is the goal we have," he said.

And $20 million more

In the meantime, the company will spend the $35 million in upgrades to the mining operation which will involve upgrading the truck fleet, the loading fleet and other equipment. And the investment will probably get even larger.

"There is another $20 million we are working on [with shareholders] to spend this year in the concentrator in order to bring the equipment to better condition," he added. "It's an investment to make it more reliable."

Workforce growing

With an increase in spending, there will also be an increase in the workforce as the company moves toward ramping up production and implementing the manganese project.

"In the union agreement we negotiated, we negotiated a project team which is a group of people who will be affected to work on the project in the plant. We are in the process of hiring these people," he said. "We are talking about eight people."

Levesque also pointed out that there are currently 20 to 30 employees ready to take their retirement, so the company is working on hiring to fill those positions once opened.

Production ramping up

As well, Levesque said, the company is evaluating further recruitment needs as it currently is in the process of ramping up production.

"This year we targeted about 4 million tonne and we are looking for 4.5 million for next year, even 5 million if we can achieve it," he said. "The goal is to be at 5.5 sometime in 2012, that is our goal. And, along the process, we will hire the people we need in order to support that."

Positive contrast

With plans to invest as much as $85 million into the mine, it's quite a contrast to the forecast less than two years ago.

"It is a lot brighter than it was a year and a half ago, no doubt," said Levesque. "The positive news is, these people [shareholders] understand the need to invest money. They are working with us to find ways to make both parties happy with the way we are working together. That is really positive compared to the way things were a year and a half ago. The way we are working with our employees--the union executive, the employees on the floor--is really positive. There is a really good momentum and there is no reason why we should not be able to achieve that and make that a success in the coming years."

Levesque resides in Sept-Iles, QC and travels back and forth on a weekly basis managing Wabush's Scully Mine and the Point-Noire facilities in QC.

editor@theaurora.ca