Vale, Glencore agree to $2B joint venture copper project

Vale & Glencore are teaming up to mine copper & other critical minerals in Sudbury, combining efforts at the Nickel Rim South Mine to access adjoining deposits.

Vale Ltd. and Glencore have announced plans to work together to develop a brownfield copper project on adjacent properties in the Sudbury Basin.

“The agreement provides a framework to explore the significant synergies of mining both companies’ underground deposits via the existing shaft and infrastructure at Glencore’s Nickel Rim South Mine,” the companies said in a news release Tuesday.

Once the early work is complete, the companies will be equal partners in the joint venture.

Existing shafts

“The project proposes deepening Glencore’s existing mine shaft and developing new drifts to access nearby copper deposits,” the release said.

“The project is estimated to produce 880 kilotons of copper over 21 years with a capital cost of about US$1.6 billion to US$2.0 billion.”

In addition to copper, the project will also produce nickel, cobalt, gold, platinum group metals and other critical minerals.

Detailed engineering, permitting and consultation work will occur in 2026. A final investment decision is expected in the first half of 2027.

“Opportunities to partner and unlock synergistic value between neighbouring miners in the Sudbury Basin have been pursued for decades, without meaningful success,” Shaun Usmar, CEO of Vale Base Metals, said in the release.

“I’m grateful for the commitment shown by both Glencore and our VBM team for coming together to finally unlock this historic opportunity by demonstrating a new collaborative way of working.”

Usmar said the joint venture will benefit both companies, allowing them “to extract valuable copper-rich orebodies for our respective operations that would otherwise be lost to both companies.”

“The proposed 50-50 joint venture aims to leverage Glencore’s unused infrastructure to access orebodies on both our properties,” he added.

“This will benefit our respective companies, our local communities in and around Sudbury, and it has the potential to produce nearer-term critical minerals from this prolific brownfield project for the Canadian economy. My hope is it will be a catalyst to unearth further synergies in the region.”

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