China’s Jilin Nickel Co. is to decrease its nickel output to about 4000mt in 2001, compared with an earlier target of 5500mt, because of the flooding of its mine in August, a company official has said. “Our mine was hit by floods on 5 August. We used to produce about 650mt per month of nickel output but since August our monthly production has dropped by 70%,” the official said. He added that Jilin has been stopping sales of nickel output because of the production slump. “We are still uncertain about when our production will resume at the old output level as our equipment hasn’t been fully restored to normal operation,” he added. Jilin mainly produces nickel matte products and has a maximum capacity of 10,000mt per year.
