After reviewing Vale New Caledonia (VNC) operations in March, Vale decided to continue the ramp up. A second review will take place in the second half of this year. That review will focus on VNC’s ability to continuously run with two autoclaves while maximizing product mix in terms of nickel oxide. In addition, the review will evaluate cost reduction plans and their risks. VNC produced 5,100 mt of nickel in nickel hydroxide cake and nickel oxide and 372 mt of cobalt in the first quarter. The high-pressure acid leaching throughput level indicates that VNC is on the way to delivering 40,000 mtpy of nickel, but reaching full capacity of 57,000 mtpy requires improvements in plant availability and downstream debottlenecking. VNC is slated to produce 26,000 mt in 2013 and 45,000 mt in 2014 and reach full capacity in 2016. VNC has had a negative cash flow of about $750-million annually. This year the negative cash flow is expected to be $250-million. Vale expects cash flow to be positive in 2014.