HAVANA - Cuba exported more than 70,000 tonnes of unrefined nickel plus cobalt in 2002, the state-run news agency AIN reported on Wednesday, compared with 77,000 tonnes the government said was sent abroad in 2001.

"The export of this strategic product exceeded expectations arriving at a little more than 70,000 tonnes," AIN said in its annual report on economic activity in eastern Holguin province, home of Cuba's three nickel plants.

The Communist-run Caribbean island is the world's fourth largest nickel producer and supplies 10 percent of the world's cobalt, according to Cuban Basic Industry Minister Marcos Portal.

Nickel is essential in the production of stainless steel and other corrosion resistant alloys. Cobalt is critical in production of super alloys used for such products as aircraft engines.

Total unrefined nickel plus cobalt production was not reported, though it was expected to be similar to 2001 output of 76,500 tonnes.

Portal said earlier this year that the nickel plants operated at near capacity in 2001, and new investments were being sought to increase output by 40,000 tonnes within five years.

"This year we will not see the big jumps in production that we had in recent years because we are at capacity," Portal said in May.

One of the plants is a joint venture operated by the government and Canada-based Sherritt International Corp. The other two plants are state run.

The industry exports most of its nickel plus cobalt sulfides and oxide to Europe and to Canada, where the government and Sherritt International jointly operate a refinery.

Nickel emerged as Cuba's biggest export earner in 2000, with revenues of more than $600 million. Revenues fell to less than US$450 million in 2001, but were expected to exceed $500 million in 2002 due to rising international prices.

Cuba has invested $400 million over the last decade in the industry and increased production from 30,000 tonnes in 1993 to 76,500 tonnes last year.

Cuban nickel is considered to be Class II with an average 90 percent nickel content.

Cuba's National Minerals Resource Center reported that eastern Holguin province counted 34 percent of the world's known reserves, or some 800 million tonnes of proven nickel plus cobalt reserves, and another 2.2 billion tonnes of probable reserves, with lesser reserves in other parts of the country.