12th Aug, 2010

Vale (formerly Vale Inco) headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has announced that the Goro project has successfully produced its first nickel metal product.

Located in New Caledonia in the South Pacific, Vale confirmed that commissioning at the Goro plant is now almost complete. Remaining commissioning work will continue to take place over the next few months with the refinery expected to be in production by the end of this year.

Goro is a nickel laterite project with an estimated annual nominal capacity to produce 60,000 metric tons of nickel and 4,000 metric tons of cobalt as a by-product.

Nickel is widely used to produce stainless steel and special alloys. It is an essential ingredient in the products we use every day, including electronics, construction materials and medical equipment.

Vale has more than 12,000 employees working with nickel in Canada, the United States, Indonesia, Asia, New Caledonia, the United Kingdom and Brazil.

www.nickel.vale.com