Cuba's three nickel processing plants remain open despite low international prices, state-run radio said over the weekend in a report that urged workers to improve efficiency.
The national radio newscast report on eastern Holguin province, where the nickel industry is based, said, "The factories continue to produce with more discipline and efficiency and that's what is needed."
The report dealt with how the province was coping with the global financial crisis and slowdown.
"Thousands of families in Moa, Nicaro and other areas in Holguin depend on nickel. International nickel prices have fallen close to 80 percent ... but not a single worker in the industry has been thrown onto the street," the report said.
Cuban Vice President Jose Ramon Machado Ventura warned earlier this month that nickel prices were on the verge of making the island's most important export industry unprofitable.
"Nickel has declined from $50,000 per tonne to $10,000, $9,000 and at $9,000 it is no longer profitable, and we have been selling nickel these days at $9,000, then up to $10,000," Machado told reporters.
The country produced some 70,000 tonnes of unrefined nickel plus cobalt in 2008 for export.
Cuba's two state-run plants average 117 barrels of fuel oil to produce a tonne of product for market, according to western businessmen.
A third plant run as a joint venture with Canada's Sherritt International consumes around 35 barrels of oil per tonne of output, they said.
The Caribbean island is one of the world's largest nickel producers and supplies 10 percent of the world's cobalt, according to Cuba's Basic Industry Ministry.
Nickel is essential in the production of stainless steel and other corrosion-resistant alloys, while cobalt is critical for making super alloys used in aircraft engines and other products.
Nickel has accounted for more than 50 percent of export earnings in recent years, not including services.
Since the United States established a commission in 2006 to track Cuban nickel as part of sanctions, information on the sector has been restricted.
Cuban nickel is considered to be Class II with an average 90 percent nickel content.
Cuba's National Minerals Resource Centre has reported that eastern Holguin province has 34 percent of the world's known reserves, or some 800 million tonnes, of proven nickel plus cobalt reserves.
The centre says the region holds an additional 2.2 billion tonnes of probable reserves, with lesser reserves in other parts of the country.
Source: Reuters
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