1.   Huge cost overruns at a much heralded iron ore processing plant here in mineral-rich Western Australia and a troubled copper investment in the United States.

2.   Sherritt International mines nickel and cobalt and operates an ore processing plant on the Caribbean island nation.

3.   Moreover, the company will focus on gold mining by expediting the approval of mining licences and preparing machinery for its ore processing plant.

4.   The Societe Miniere du Province du Nord and Canadian firm, Falconbridge, want to build a nickel ore processing plant in the job-starved region.

5.   The industry ministry said the government was backing plans to construct a nickel ore processing plant in the north of the island which needed adequate supplies of the mineral.