Vale do Rio Doce, the world’s second-largest nickel refiner, has halted concentrate shipments from Newfoundland and Labrador until an agreement can be reached with the Canadian province on a proposed processing plant. Vale and the provincial government failed to agree on plans for the Placentia Bay plant, which would process concentrate into refined metal. In August, Vale expected to receive permits by April to build the USD 2 billion plant and that production of finished nickel would start in 2012. The provincial government had completed its review of the project and put it in line for permitting this year, when construction was expected to start. The government and the company are still talking, and the government is not commenting while the talks are continuing. Placentia Bay would produce about 50,000 metric tons of finished metal a year out of concentrate taken from Vale’s Voisey’s Bay mine, which also is in the province. Vale has been processing that material at plants in the provinces of Ontario and Manitoba. Vale aims to employ a new hydro-metallurgical process at the Placentia Bay plant to separate nickel from the Voisey’s Bay ore using a flotation line.