Vale SA is proceeding with plans to increase nickel production at its strike bound operations in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador, where unionized production and maintenance workers have been on strike for close to eight months. Vale resumed partial production in its Sudbury mining site in Ontario in September 2009 with a focus on copper operating two high copper mining zones and the company’s Clarabelle Mill to produce copper concentrates. In January 2010, the focus shifted to nickel, with resumption of a one furnace operation at the company’s Copper Cliff smelter. The furnace has been operating at full capacity since, drawing down nickel inventories to produce a nickel oxide matte for the company’s refinery in Clydach, Wales and producing at a nominal rate of 11 million pounds of nickel per month. In Newfoundland and Labrador, Vale has resumed production at the Voisey’s Bay Ovoid mine and the mill, which supplies nickel concentrates to Vale’s operations in Thompson, Manitoba and Sudbury, Ontario and copper concentrates to clients in Europe.