Voisey's Bay Mine is a nickel

Nickel

Nickel is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel belongs to the transition metals and is hard and ductile...

 mine in the Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 province of Newfoundland and Labrador

Newfoundland and Labrador

Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...

, near the bay

Bay

A bay is an area of water mostly surrounded by land. Bays generally have calmer waters than the surrounding sea, due to the surrounding land blocking some waves and often reducing winds. Bays also exist as an inlet in a lake or pond. A large bay may be called a gulf, a sea, a sound, or a bight...

 of the same name

Voisey's Bay

Voisey's Bay is a bay of the Atlantic Ocean in Labrador, Canada. The bay is located south of the community of Nain. The bay is heavily indented with numerous inlets and islands and is extremely rocky and is the site of the Voisey's Bay Mine....

.

Nickel deposit

A large nickel

Nickel

Nickel is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel belongs to the transition metals and is hard and ductile...

 deposit was discovered in hills along the western shore of the bay (56°20′5"N 62°6′11"W) in September 1993 by Archean Inc., a prospecting firm hired by Diamond Fields Resources Inc. This deposit is considered to be one of the most substantial mineral discoveries in Canada in the last 40 years and is estimated to contain 141 million tonnes at 1.6% nickel.

Currently the mining rights for the Voisey's Bay nickel deposit belong to the Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

-headquartered Vale Inco company, a subsidiary of Vale. The bulk carrier ship Umiak I

Umiak I

The Umiak I is a purpose-built ice-strengthened bulk carrier constructed for the Voisey's Bay Nickel Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Vale Inco, to transport ore from the Voisey's Bay Mine....

 was built to transport ore from the mine.

Since the discovery of the Voisey's Bay deposit, efforts have been increased to find similar deposits in coastal Labrador.

Labour issues

At present, workers at Voisey's Bay are flown in, via Voisey's Bay Aerodrome

Voisey's Bay Aerodrome

Voisey's Bay Aerodrome, , is located adjacent to Voisey's Bay Mine, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada....

, from other communities in the province, and reside at a work camp while onsite. There are no current plans to build a permanent settlement at Voisey.

Workers at the site went on strike

Strike action

Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...

 in the summer of 2006. A core issue in the dispute was pay equity with workers at Vale Inco's facilities in Greater Sudbury, Port Colborne

Port Colborne, Ontario

Port Colborne is a city on Lake Erie, at the southern end of the Welland Canal, in the Niagara Region of southern Ontario, Canada...

 and Thompson

Thompson, Manitoba

Thompson is a city in northern Manitoba. As the "Hub of the North" it serves as the regional trade and service centre of northern Manitoba. Thompson is located north of the Canada – United States border, north of the provincial capital of Winnipeg, and is northeast of Flin Flon...

.

The question of where Voisey ore would be processed had previously been one of the obstacles to developing the site, with the government of Newfoundland and Labrador demanding that a facility be built in the province to provide jobs there, while Inco workers in Sudbury and Thompson were simultaneously threatening to strike if the ore was not sent to their existing facilities in order to preserve and protect their jobs. The existing workers in Sudbury and Thompson eventually accepted a compromise; the ore would be shipped to their facilities until 2011, then a new facility that was being built in Newfoundland would be ready to begin operations. The profits from Sudbury and Thompson would reinvested in developing new mining sites in those communities. In November 2008 the honorable Kathy Dunderdale

Kathy Dunderdale

Kathleen Mary Margaret "Kathy" Dunderdale MHA is a Canadian politician and the tenth and current Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, having served in this capacity since December 3, 2010...

Minister of Natural Resources, announced that construction should start in 2009 to build a $2B hydromet plant in Long Harbour on Newfoundland's south coast.