Vale said the US District Court for the Southern District of New York annulled the majority of a class action lawsuit against the company and executives over the 2015 deadly accident.
Suncor Energy, the largest partner in Syncrude, said it expects to meet its 2017 production targets despite a fire that shut down the Mildred Lake upgrader almost two weeks ago.
He said the project would employ 28,000 people, with TransCanada predicting only 13,000 temporary construction jobs and the US State Department saying only 50 of them will be permanent positions.
Workers ended their strike and invoked a rarely used legal provision that allows them to extend their old contract, which leaves them in the exact same situation they were before they downed tools.
Joint venture will focus on nickel assets, particularly the Quebec-based Dumont project, which is expected to become the world's fifth largest nickel sulphide mine.