Inco
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Inco Limited | |
 |
|
| Type | Public (N) |
|---|---|
| Founded | (1902) |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Key people | Scott Hand, Chairman & CEO, Peter Jones, President & COO, Robert Davies CFO, Peter Goudie, EVP - Marketing, Sandra Scott, executive director - Investor Relations, Simon Fish, EVP - General Counsel & Secretary, Bruce Drysdale, VP - Government & Public Affairs, Bill Napier, VP - Environment & Health |
| Industry | Mining |
| Products | Nickel, copper, cobalt, PGMs |
| Revenue |  $4.5 billion USD (2005) |
| Employees | 11,700 (2005) |
| Slogan | Building the world's leading nickel company. |
| Website | www.inco.com/ |
Inco Limited TSX: N NYSE: N is a Canadian mining and metals company, headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. It is the world's second largest producer of nickel, and the third largest mining company outside South Africa and Russia of platinum-group metals. A charter member of the newly expanded 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average (October 1, 1928), Inco was replaced by Boeing in 1987.
The International Nickel Company was founded in New Jersey, USA, in 1902 through the merger of Canadian Copper, the Orford Copper Company, the Société Minière Caledonienne, and others. Control was transferred to the International Nickel Company of Canada, Ltd., upon its founding in 1916. The International Nickel Company of Canada, Ltd., first began using the trade name Inco in 1919.
Inco began with the Canadian Copper Company following the discovery of copper deposits in Sudbury, Ontario. Initially, ore was shipped for smelting to a plant in Constable Hook, New Jersey owned by the Orford Copper Company. Processing soon revealed that the ore was also rich in nickel and exploration tests revealed an enormous potential. In 1902 the International Nickel created as a joint venture between Canadian Copper and Orford Copper. In 1916, the International Nickel Company of Canada was incorporated as the operating company in Copper Cliff near Sudbury, and in 1918 the company built a new refinery in Port Colborne, Ontario.
In 1929 the corporation underwent a major expansion by absorbing the British owned Mond Nickel Co. Head office was established in Toronto, Ontario. In 1972 the Inco Superstack was built in Sudbury. In 1976, the company’s name was officially changed to Inco Limited.
Currently, Inco has operations in twenty countries around the world including the Goro Nickel project area in New Caledonia and the Voisey's Bay nickel-copper-cobalt deposits in Labrador.
In order to generate cash Inco sold its manufacturing sites of nickel alloys to Special Metals Corporation in 1998. Special Metals Corporation however filed Chapter 11 in March 2002. Besides nickel, Inco produces copper, cobalt, platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium, gold, and silver.
On October 11, 2005, Inco announced a friendly takeover bid to buy out the operations of longtime rival Falconbridge for $12 billion. If approved, the deal would make Inco the world's largest producer of nickel. Xstrata (who already owns ~20% of Falconbridge shares) has since submitted a hostile takeover bid for Falconbridge, resulting in what would best be described as a bidding war between Inco and Xstrata.
Teck Cominco submitted a hostile takeover bid to purchase Inco on May 8, 2006 for $16 billion if it agreed to abandon its takeover of Falconbridge. On June 26 of the same year, Phelps Dodge submitted a friendly takeover bid to purchase a combined Inco and Falconbridge for around $40 billion; that offer was also withdrawn because of the failure of the Inco-Falconbridge merger.
On August 14, 2006 Brazilian mining company CVRD extended an all-cash offer to buy Inco. That offer received approval from the Canadian government's investment review agency on October 19, and was accepted by Inco shareholders on October 23. CVRD has stated that the company plans to maintain CVRD Inco as a separate nickel mining division; its current nickel mining projects in Brazil, including at Onca Puma and Vermelho, will also be transferred to Inco's management. Inco will be delisted on the TSX and Dow Jones exchanges soon after the final arrangement for the acquisition have been completed.
[edit] Human rights abuses
Inco has been involved in controversial land grabs from indigenous peoples in Guatemala, Indonesia and currently in New Caledonia. In 2006 Inco was the only company removed from the FTSE4GOOD index for "human rights" violations. The 1999 United Nations Truth Commission implicated Inco in a series of human rights violations, including killings in Guatemala.
Inco is trying to build a high pressure acid leaching (HPAL) plant at Goro village in New Caledonia. The plant plans to dump heavy metal containing waste into the lagoon for 28 years. The proposed effluent contains manganese and other contaminants above legal limits.
The project will also dump solid heavy metal waste in a pit situated on a seismic fault above the water table of Goro village.
On the 21st of November 2006 a Paris court ordered that Inco should stop destroying a forest at Kwé west where the waste tip is being dug. Inco is continuing to clear the land regardless.
In June 2006 the indigenous group Rheebu Nuu took Inco to court. The administrative tribunal revoked Inco's operating licence on the grounds of environmental damage. Inco has continued to build its plant despite the court verdict.
Sixteen indigenous militants have been prosecuted for damaging Inco property in April at the Goro site. They defended themselves by claiming "legitimate defence" and citing their constitutional right to a clean environment. They were acquitted.
Inco's New Caledonia plant houses hundreds of armed soldiers with armoured vehicles. These soldiers have French army uniforms and are paid by the French government but their barracks is within Inco's construction site. Inco contributes to the cost of housing these soldiers and allows them to use Inco vehicles for patrols in surrounding indigenous areas.
