Vale Limited
Type | Wholly owned subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Mining |
Founded | 1902 |
Headquarters | Toronto, Canada |
Key people | Peter Poppinga, (President & CEO) |
Products | Nickel, Copper, Cobalt, PGMs |
Revenue | US$ 8.3 billion (2012) |
Net income | US$ 3.8 Billion (2012) |
Employees | 12,000 |
Parent | Vale |
Subsidiaries | Vale Indonesia |
Website | nickel.vale.com |
Vale Canada Limited (formerly Vale Inco, CVRD Inco and Inco Limited; for corporate branding purposes simply known as "Vale" and pronounced "vah-lay" in English)[1] is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Brazilian mining company Vale. Vale's nickel mining and metals division is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It produces nickel, copper, cobalt, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium, gold, and silver. Prior to being purchased by CVRD (now Vale) in 2006, Inco was the world's second largest producer of nickel, and the third largest mining company outside South Africa and Russia of platinum group metals. It was also a charter member of the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average formed on October 1, 1928.
Pre-Vale history
The Company was founded 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 Company, Ltd. was created in New York, NY as a joint venture between Canadian Copper, Orford Copper, and American Nickel Works. In 1916, the International Nickel Company of Canada, Ltd. was incorporated as the operating company in Copper Cliff in Sudbury, and in 1918 the company built a new refinery in Port Colborne. The International Nickel Company of Canada, Ltd., first began using the trade name Inco in 1919.
In 1929, the corporation expanded by absorbing the British-owned Mond Nickel Company. A head office was established in Toronto. During World War II, Inco's Frood Mine produced 40% of the nickel used in artillery by the Allies. Inco also maintained a machining plant located in Sterling Forest, New York. The Sterling Forest Site was sold and is now owned and occupied by International Business Machines. In 1972 the Inco Superstack was built in Sudbury. In 1976, the company’s name was officially changed to Inco Limited.
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.
Takeovers (2005–2006)
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 have made Inco the world's largest producer of nickel. Xstrata (which already owned ~20% of Falconbridge shares) subsequently submitted a hostile takeover bid for Falconbridge, resulting in a bidding war between Inco and Xstrata. The Xstrata bid was successful, but not before Falconbridge employed a poison pill to delay the acquisition, raising its share price from $28 to $62.50 in the meantime.
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.
Criticism
In 2006 Inco was removed from the FTSE4Good Index for failing to meet their human rights criteria.[3] The company has had disputes with native groups and environmental concerns over mine runoff.
Labour relations
Employees for Inco in Canada are represented by the United Steelworkers throughout all the mergers. Because of the mergers the United Steelworkers signed an agreement with all the unions that represent mining workers in countries where Vale/Inco operate to ”...work together cooperatively and strategically as global partners, to build the bargaining power of workers”[4] The unions include Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores no Setor Minera, SINTICIM, Union syndicale des ouvriers et employés de Nouvelle-Calédonie, Union des Syndicats des Travailleurs Kanak et Exploités, Fagforbundet for Industri og Energi, Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, and the United Steelworkers.
Current operations
Ontario, Canada
- Coleman Mine, Vale's flagship nickel mine
- Copper Cliff North Mine
- Copper Cliff South Mine
- Creighton Mine
- Frood Mine
- Garson Mine
- Refinery in Port Colborne
- Stobie mine
- Clarabelle Mill
- Totten mine
- Copper Cliff Smelter
- Copper Cliff Nickel Refinery
Manitoba, Canada
- Birchtree Mine
- Thompson Mine
Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
Indonesia
- Vale Inco's Indonesian joint venture PT Inco, an Indonesian company which is 20 percent publicly owned (IDX:INCO), is located in Soroako. In August 2011, a dispute began because PT Inco broke its promise to build 2 smelters in Pomala and Bahodopi in 2005 and 2010 respectively, and to hand over 50,000 hectares of its 118,000-hectare concession to locals. Based on the latest feasibility study, only the Bahodopi smelter facility was possible. The dispute might go to court.[5]
- October 11, 2011: After starting operation of its third hydropower plant at Karebbe with an output of 130 megawatts (MW), the company would increase production from 73,000 metric tons to 120,000 metric tons per year over the next five years. The first and second hydropower plants are located in Larona and Balambano with a combined output of 365 MW. As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility plan, the company has given a total of 8 MW from the plants to Perusahaan Listrik Negara (Indonesian Government Electric Company) for free.[6]
New Caledonia
- Vale Inco New Caledonia
Popular culture
Inco has been immortalized in the Stompin' Tom Connors song "Sudbury Saturday Night". More recently, the Creighton Mine, owned by Vale and hosting the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, figures largely in the plot of Robert J. Sawyer's Neanderthal Parallax trilogy.
References
- ↑ "Welcome to Vale Inco". Retrieved 2007-11-29.
- ↑ http://valeinconegotiations.com/2010/05/vale-inco-announces-name-change-to-vale
- ↑ "Semi-Annual Review of the FTSE4GOOD Indices" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-11-29.
- ↑ United Steelworkers. Steelworkers and Global Union Partners Announce Unity Accord. March 20, 2007. Available at http://www.usw.ca/program/content/3964.php?lan=en
- ↑ "Inco denies contract and environmental violations". August 22, 2011.
- ↑ "Inco expands operations for sustainability". October 14, 2011.