NEWS RELEASE: VALE HIRING 60 NEW UNDERGROUND MINERS IN SUDBURY

SUDBURY, September 7, 2011 – Vale is embarking on a campaign to hire 60 new underground miners at its operations in Sudbury. The Company also currently has postings for a number of other jobs, including engineers, supervisors, surface plant operators and tradespeople.

“Vale is making unprecedented investments in our operations in the Sudbury Basin,” said Jon Treen, General Manager of Vale’s Ontario Operations. “As we continue to invest locally, we have a real need
for people to consider a rewarding career with our Company,” he added.

Last year, Vale announced investments of $3.4 billion in Sudbury to the end of 2015. These investments are aimed at re-building and modernizing assets, reducing emissions, extending the life of existing mines and finding new sources of ore to ensure Vale’s ongoing sustainability.

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Rails to the Ring of Fire Mining Camp – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – September, 2011)

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business  provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

For the web’s largest database of articles on the Ring of Fire mining camp, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

Cliffs endorses Ring of Fire railroad plan

Building a Ring of Fire railroad to move millions of bulk tonnes of chromite is a certainty, said a senior official with Cliffs Natural Resources.

Bill Boor, Cliffs’ senior vice-president of global ferroalloys, who is overseeing the Ohio miner’s project development in the James Bay lowlands, said rail is an inevitability as more mines come on stream in the remote district.

In last winter’s base case for its high grade Black Thor chromite deposit, Cliffs proposed a permanent year-round haul road between the mine site and railway connections near Nakina in northwestern Ontario.

But Boor clarified that one mine alone doesn’t support the mega-investment of a railroad. However, establishing a transportation corridor will improve the economics of other nearby deposits. Once that “scale” is built up, Boor said, “the right answer is to put a railroad in place.

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NEWS RELEASE: Mining industry hiring requirements to peak in 2011 according to national report released by the Mining HR Council

MiHR is the HR knowledge and research centre for Canada’s minerals and metals industry. www.mihr.ca

To read the report please click this link: Mining Industry Employment and Hiring Forecasts 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OTTAWA (September 6, 2011) – Human resources challenges continue to threaten the future competitiveness of the Canadian mining industry. A combination of factors including the pending retirement of the baby boom generation, difficulties in attracting and engaging youth and an under-representation of diverse groups paints a challenging ten-year talent forecast. While the industry has taken tremendous strides in addressing these issues, finding experienced and skilled workers is becoming more difficult, and competition across sectors of the economy is increasing, according to a new report released by the Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR).

The Canadian Mining Industry Employment and Hiring Forecasts 2011 report, an annual publication, includes adjustments to the MiHR forecasting model, namely updates to the economic variables and the Commodity Price Index. The general improvement in the outlook for the global economy and for commodities has led to hiring projections in the 2011 report which have increased from the already substantial numbers of the 2010 report.

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