Inco
Encyclopedia
Vale Canada Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Brazil
ian mining company Vale. It is Vale's nickel mining and metals division and 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.
The Canadian Copper 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 per Vale website and advertisements) 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 near 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 underwent a major expansion 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, NY. 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.
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.
On August 14, 2006 Brazilian mining company CVRD extended an all-cash offer to buy Inco for $17 billion. That offer received approval from the Canadian government's investment review agency on October 19, and was accepted by Inco shareholders on October 23. Part of the takeover deal was that CVRD would operate Inco as a separate nickel mining division; all of CVRD's nickel operations, including mines at Onca Puma and Vermelho in Brazil, were transferred to Inco's management. Inco was delisted from the NYSE
on November 16, 2006 and the TSX
on January 5, 2007. According to its current web site, Inco is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Vale (formerly CVRD). Vale has since changed the name of Vale-Inco to simply Vale, stating the change is "a milestone that aligns it more fully with other Vale operations worldwide and reflects its position as part of the world’s second largest mining company"
for failing to meet their human rights criteria. The company has had disputes with native groups and environmental concerns over mine runoff.
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” 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
.
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.
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian mining company Vale. It is Vale's nickel mining and metals division and is headquartered in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. It produces nickel, copper, cobalt
Cobalt
Cobalt is a chemical element with symbol Co and atomic number 27. It is found naturally only in chemically combined form. The free element, produced by reductive smelting, is a hard, lustrous, silver-gray metal....
, platinum
Platinum
Platinum is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Pt and an atomic number of 78. Its name is derived from the Spanish term platina del Pinto, which is literally translated into "little silver of the Pinto River." It is a dense, malleable, ductile, precious, gray-white transition metal...
, rhodium
Rhodium
Rhodium is a chemical element that is a rare, silvery-white, hard and chemically inert transition metal and a member of the platinum group. It has the chemical symbol Rh and atomic number 45. It is composed of only one isotope, 103Rh. Naturally occurring rhodium is found as the free metal, alloyed...
, ruthenium
Ruthenium
Ruthenium is a chemical element with symbol Ru and atomic number 44. It is a rare transition metal belonging to the platinum group of the periodic table. Like the other metals of the platinum group, ruthenium is inert to most chemicals. The Russian scientist Karl Ernst Claus discovered the element...
, iridium
Iridium
Iridium is the chemical element with atomic number 77, and is represented by the symbol Ir. A very hard, brittle, silvery-white transition metal of the platinum family, iridium is the second-densest element and is the most corrosion-resistant metal, even at temperatures as high as 2000 °C...
, 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
Platinum group
The platinum group metals is a term used sometimes to collectively refer to six metallic elements clustered together in the periodic table.These elements are all transition metals, lying in the d-block .The six...
metals. It was also a charter member of the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average
Dow Jones Industrial Average
The Dow Jones Industrial Average , also called the Industrial Average, the Dow Jones, the Dow 30, or simply the Dow, is a stock market index, and one of several indices created by Wall Street Journal editor and Dow Jones & Company co-founder Charles Dow...
formed on October 1, 1928.
Pre-Vale history
Constable Hook, New Jersey
Constable Hook also called Constable's Hook, is a short cape located on the north side of the outlet of Kill van Kull into Upper New York Bay . It forms the eastmost extent of the industrial Port Johnson in southeast Bayonne...
, 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 per Vale website and advertisements) 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 near Sudbury, and in 1918 the company built a new refinery in Port Colborne
Port Colborne, Ontario
Port Colborne is a city on Lake Erie, at the southern end of the Welland Canal, in the Niagara Region of southern Ontario, Canada...
. The International Nickel Company of Canada, Ltd., first began using the trade name Inco in 1919.
In 1929, the corporation underwent a major expansion by absorbing the British-owned Mond Nickel Company
Mond Nickel Company
The Mond Nickel Company Limited was a United Kingdom-based mining company, formed on September 20, 1900, licenced in Canada to carry on business in the province of Ontario, from October 16, 1900...
. A head office was established in Toronto. During World War II, Inco's Frood Mine
Frood Mine
Frood-Stobie Mine is a nickel mine in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.During World War II, Frood Mine alone accounted for a full 40 per cent of all the nickel used in Allied artillery production. In 1989, Frood Mine shared the John T...
produced 40% of the nickel used in artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
by the Allies
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
. Inco also maintained a machining plant located in Sterling Forest, NY. The Sterling Forest Site was sold and is now owned and occupied by International Business Machines. In 1972 the Inco Superstack
Inco Superstack
The mine at the Inco Superstack is the source for 100% of the nickel used to make the batteries for Toyota's Pruis.The Inco Superstack in Sudbury, Ontario, with a height of , is the tallest chimney in Canada and the Western hemisphere, and the second tallest freestanding chimney in the world after...
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
Special Metals Corporation
Special Metals Corporation, headquartered in New Hartford, New York, U.S.A., with operations in Huntington, West Virginia; Dunkirk, New York; Burnaugh, Kentucky; Elkhart, Indiana and Hereford, England, is a supplier of refractory alloys....
in 1998. Special Metals Corporation however filed Chapter 11
Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code
Chapter 11 is a chapter of the United States Bankruptcy Code, which permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Chapter 11 bankruptcy is available to every business, whether organized as a corporation or sole proprietorship, and to individuals, although it is most...
in March 2002.
Takeovers (2005–2006)
On October 11, 2005, Inco announced a friendly takeover bid to buy out the operations of longtime rival FalconbridgeFalconbridge Ltd.
Falconbridge Limited was a Toronto, Ontario-based natural resources company with operations in 18 countries, involved in the exploration, mining, processing, and marketing of metal and mineral products, including nickel, copper, cobalt, and platinum. It was listed on the TSX and NYSE , and had...
for $12 billion. If approved, the deal would have made Inco the world's largest producer of nickel. Xstrata
Xstrata
Xstrata plc is a global mining company headquartered in Zug, Switzerland and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is a major producer of coal , copper, nickel, primary vanadium and zinc and the world's largest producer of ferrochrome...
(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
Poison pill
A shareholder rights plan, colloquially known as a "poison pill", or simply "the pill" is a type of defensive tactic used by a corporation's board of directors against a takeover...
to delay the acquisition, raising its share price from $28 to $62.50 in the meantime.
Teck Cominco
Teck Cominco
Teck Resources Limited known as Teck Cominco until late 2008, is a Canadian mining company. It was formed from the amalgamation of Teck and Cominco in 2001.-History:...
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
Phelps Dodge
Phelps Dodge Corporation was an American mining company founded in 1834 by Anson Greene Phelps and William Earle Dodge, Sr.. On March 19, 2007, it was acquired by Freeport-McMoRan and now operates under the name Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.-History:...
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.
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
on November 16, 2006 and the TSX
Toronto Stock Exchange
Toronto Stock Exchange is the largest stock exchange in Canada, the third largest in North America and the seventh largest in the world by market capitalisation. Based in Canada's largest city, Toronto, it is owned by and operated as a subsidiary of the TMX Group for the trading of senior equities...
on January 5, 2007. According to its current web site, Inco is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Vale (formerly CVRD). Vale has since changed the name of Vale-Inco to simply Vale, stating the change is "a milestone that aligns it more fully with other Vale operations worldwide and reflects its position as part of the world’s second largest mining company"
Criticism
In 2006 Inco was removed from the FTSE4Good IndexFTSE4Good Index
The FTSE4Good Index series is a series of ethical investment stock market indices launched in 2001 by the FTSE Group. A number of stock market indices are available, for example covering UK shares, US shares, European markets, and Japan, with inclusion based on a range of corporate social...
for failing to meet their human rights criteria. 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 SteelworkersUnited Steelworkers
The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union is the largest industrial labor union in North America, with 705,000 members. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, U.S., the United Steelworkers represents workers in the United...
throughout all the mergers. Because of the mergers the United Steelworkers
United Steelworkers
The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union is the largest industrial labor union in North America, with 705,000 members. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, U.S., the United Steelworkers represents workers in the United...
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” 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
Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union
The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union is Australia's main trade union in construction, forestry and furnishing products, mining and energy production....
, and the United Steelworkers
United Steelworkers
The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union is the largest industrial labor union in North America, with 705,000 members. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, U.S., the United Steelworkers represents workers in the United...
.
Current operations
Ontario, Canada
- Coleman-McCreedy East Mine
- Copper Cliff North MineCopper Cliff North MineCopper Cliff North Mine is an underground nickel mine in Copper Cliff, Ontario, Canada. It is owned and operated by Vale Inco.The mine was the 2007 winner of the John T. Ryan Trophy for metal mines. Employing approximately 260 people, the mine went through 2006 without a lost-time-accident,...
- Creighton MineCreighton MineCreighton Mine is an underground nickel mine, owned and operated by Vale Inco Limited in the city of Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada...
, Vale's flagship nickel mine - Frood MineFrood MineFrood-Stobie Mine is a nickel mine in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.During World War II, Frood Mine alone accounted for a full 40 per cent of all the nickel used in Allied artillery production. In 1989, Frood Mine shared the John T...
- Garson MineGarson MineGarson Mine is an underground nickel mine located in the community of Garson, within the city of Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. Garson mine was developed around 1908 by Mond Nickel Company and is owned by Vale Inco.-Garson Ramp Project:...
- Refinery in Port Colborne
- Stobie mine
- Clarabelle Mill
- Totten mine
Indonesia
- Vale Inco's IndonesiaIndonesiaIndonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n joint venture PT Inco is located in SoroakoSoroakoSoroako, also spelled Sorowako, is a small mining town in the north-east of South Sulawesi province, in the centre of Sulawesi island in Indonesia....
. In August 2011, there are dispute about PT Inco which broke its promises 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 Bahodopi smelter facility was possible. The dispute might be go on court.
- October 11, 2011: After started operating the 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 Blambana with a combined output of 365 MW. As Corporate Social ResponsibilityCorporate social responsibilityCorporate social responsibility is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model...
, the company has given totally 8 MW from the plants to Perusahaan Listrik NegaraPerusahaan Listrik NegaraPLN is an Indonesian government-owned corporation which has a monopoly on electricity distribution in Indonesia.- History :...
(Indonesian Government Electric Company) for free.
Popular culture
Inco has been immortalized in the Stompin' Tom ConnorsStompin' Tom Connors
Charles Thomas "Stompin' Tom" Connors, OC is one of Canada's most prolific and well-known country and folk singers.He lives in Wellington County, Ontario.- Early life :...
song "Sudbury Saturday Night
Sudbury Saturday Night
"Sudbury Saturday Night" is one of the most famous songs by Stompin' Tom Connors, which depicts the hard-drinking, hard-partying social life of hard rock miners in the Northern Ontario mining city of Sudbury....
". More recently, the Creighton Mine
Creighton Mine
Creighton Mine is an underground nickel mine, owned and operated by Vale Inco Limited in the city of Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada...
, owned by Vale and hosting the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory is a neutrino observatory located 6,800 feet underground in Vale Inco's Creighton Mine in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. The detector was designed to detect solar neutrinos through their interactions with a large tank of heavy water. The detector turned on in May 1999,...
, figures largely in the plot of Robert J. Sawyer
Robert J. Sawyer
Robert James Sawyer is a Canadian science fiction writer. He has had 20 novels published, and his short fiction has appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Amazing Stories, On Spec, Nature, and many anthologies. Sawyer has won over forty awards for his fiction, including the Nebula Award ,...
's Neanderthal Parallax trilogy.