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Noranda Incorporated History (1922 – 2004) – by International Directory of Company Histories

For a large selection of corporate histories click: International Directory of Company Histories

Company History:

Noranda Inc. is one of the largest mining and metals companies in the world with operations in 18 countries. Production of copper and nickel accounts for the majority of Noranda’s revenues–the company also mines aluminum, zinc, and precious metals. Noranda restructured in the late 1990s by selling off its forest products and oil and gas businesses in order to focus on its core metals and mining assets.

Origins and Development: 1920s-50s

The history of Noranda begins with the story of a prospector named Edmund Horne, and a hunch. During the early 1920s, at a time when northern Canada was unchartered–the area was mostly wilderness, and prospectors preferred to stay on the familiar grounds of Ontario–Horne was drawn to the Rouyn district in northeastern Quebec. He visited Rouyn repeatedly, because he believed it “didn’t seem sensible that all the good geology should quit at the Ontario border!” Horne could reach Rouyn only by way of a chain of lakes and rivers.

His enthusiasm was contagious, and soon a group of 12 men had raised C$225 to finance further explorations. The effort paid off when word of Horne’s first strike made it to S.C. Thomson and H.W. Chadbourne, two United States mining engineers with a syndicate of investors interested in exploring Canadian mines. In February 1922, the syndicate bought an option on Horne’s mining claims in Ontario and Quebec and exercised it. Noranda Mines Ltd. was incorporated in 1922 to acquire the U.S. syndicate’s mining claims.

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Falconbridge Limited (1928-2000) – by International Directory of Company Histories

For a large selection of corporate histories click: International Directory of Company Histories

Company History:

Falconbridge Limited is a leading base metals mining company operating out of Toronto, Canada. Its primary commodity is nickel, which is instrumental in the manufacture of stainless steel, followed by copper, cobalt, and platinum group metals. Falconbridge owns nickel mines in Canada and the Dominican Republic, and ever since 1930 has maintained a refinery in Norway. The company is majority owned by Noranda, a Canadian natural resources company that controls more than 50 percent of its stock. Falconbridge shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Founding of Falconbridge: 1928

Falconbridge took its name from the township of Falconbridge, Ontario, an area possessing large deposits of nickel. In 1928, businessman Thayer Lindsley paid $2.5 million for mining claims in the area and created Falconbridge Nickel Mines Limited. The new company took immediate steps to work the claims, and despite the stock market crash of 1929 it was able to sink a shaft and begin to develop the mine, as well as build a smelter. Falconbridge still had to refine the ore, however, and the International Nickel Company of Canada (INCO) retained the North American rights to refining technologies.

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Inco Limited History (1902- 2001) – by International Directory of Company Histories

For a large selection of corporate histories click: International Directory of Company Histories

Company History:

Inco Limited is one of the world’s top producers of nickel. It operates Canada’s largest mining and processing operation in Sudbury, Ontario, and runs other mines in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Indonesia. It has interests in refineries in Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, and sales and operations in over 40 countries worldwide. Overall Inco provides about 25 percent of the nickel used globally. The company also produces cobalt, copper, precious metals, and specialty nickel products.

Early Years

Nickel was first isolated as an element in the middle of the 18th century, but not until the following century did it come into demand as a coin metal. Up to around 1890, coining remained the metal’s only use, and most of the world’s nickel was mined by Le Nickel, a Rothschild company, on the island of New Caledonia. At that time, however, it was determined that steel made from an iron-nickel alloy could be rolled into exceptionally hard plates, called armor plate, for warships, tanks, and other military vehicles, and the resulting surge in demand spurred a worldwide search for nickel deposits.

The world’s largest nickel deposit ever discovered was in Ontario’s Sudbury Basin; before long, one of the area’s big copper mining companies, Canadian Copper, began shipping quantities of nickel to a U.S. refinery in Bayonne, New Jersey, the Orford Copper Company.

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Companhia Vale Do Rio Doce (CVRD/VALE) History (1942-1989) – by International Directory of Company Histories

For a large selection of corporate histories click: International Directory of Company Histories

Company History:

Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD) is one of the world’s most important producers of iron ore, iron pellets, and other minerals. Owned primarily by the Brazilian government, it has taken a leading role in developing the mineral resources of the Amazonia region. Much of the company’s success is based on its ability to draw on foreign expertise and capital while at the same time retaining effective control in Brazilian hands.

Companhia Vale do Rio Doce was formed in 1942, receiving the assets of the Itabira Iron Ore Company, including the “iron mountain” of Caué Peak in the Itabira region of Minais Gerais state. The Brazilian government held 80% of the shares in the company, reduced to the present level of 53%. Initially hampered by poor management and inadequate transport facilities, it was only in the early 1950s that the company started on its path to becoming one of the world’s most important exporters of iron ore.

With its success closely linked to improvements in transport which it helped to finance, CVRD also expanded into the production of other minerals, the provision of shipping services, and iron pelleting. It also helped finance and organize a wide range of other industrial and service enterprises. When the huge iron ore reserves of the Amazon region were discovered in the 1960s, it was natural that CVRD be given responsibility for spearheading their exploitation.

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NEWS RELEASE: Project Manager, Mining Services Announced for the Thunder Bay CEDC

June 17, 2011 – The Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission (CEDC) is pleased to announce the appointment of John Mason as Project Manager, Mining Services. The appointment follows an extensive search.

Mr. Mason has 36 years of service with the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry and has published numerous geological reports. He is well-known for his in-depth knowledge and skills in the Ontario and Canadian exploration and mining sector and for his exceptional ability to market Ontario’s vast mineral potential. He is a Registered Professional Geoscientist with an Honours Bachelor of Science in Geology degree from Lakehead University. Mr. Mason officially assumed his duties at the Thunder Bay CEDC on Monday, June 13, 2011.

“John’s mining expertise dramatically contributes to the bench strength of the CEDC, the strategic importance of the mining resource sector and to the goals of the CEDC’s Strategic Plan to realize the full economic investment potential and job creation for the region and for the Province of Ontario,” said Steve Demmings, CEO of the CEDC.

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Greater Sudbury Development Corporation – Canadian Business Journal (April, 2011)

Canadian Business Journal

The Greater Sudbury region is an important part of Northern Ontario. This picturesque area is abundant in resources–and revenue. The Greater Sudbury Development Corporation is an organization in place to help those important local businesses grow and prosper, as well as attract, assist, and retain other potential investors. Sudbury is known as a mining town, and is tipped to benefit even further from the up-and-coming global mining boom. As the mining sector flourishes, Sudbury is steadily diversifying its economy and building on its previous success. This issue, The Canadian Business Journal explores the successful developments that have occurred over the last few years in this Northern Ontario paradise.

Greater Sudbury is the largest city in Northern Ontario, and the region is a hub for industry, commerce, health services, transportation, retail, government services and education. With a valuable market of about 450,000 people within a 250 kilometre radius, Greater Sudbury boasts the highest retail sales per capita of census metropolitan areas in Ontario. It is also the most culturally diverse city in Northern Ontario, with bilingualism sitting impressively around 40 per cent.

Mining: the backbone of Sudbury

Mining, of course, is the major industry in Sudbury and numerous major mining companies have successful sites in Sudbury and have been incremental in the economic growth of the city. There are 18,000 people employed by the companies involved in the sector, across many areas including mine development and operations, engineering, construction, manufacturing, and environmental rehabilitation.

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Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited Company History (1953 – 2005) – International Directory of Company Histories

For a large selection of corporate histories click: International Directory of Company Histories

Company History:

Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited is a Toronto-based Canadian gold producer, with its shares trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. The company no longer mines its founding properties, the silver-producing Agnico mine and Eagle Gold mine, instead limiting its mining activities to the LaRonde Mine in northwestern Quebec, which possesses proven and probable gold reserves of 5.3 million ounces and produces silver, copper, and zinc as a byproduct of the gold mining process.

Agnico-Eagle’s other properties, not currently in production, contain gold reserves of another 2.6 million ounces. The company also is conducting exploration on 56 properties located in eastern Canada and the western United States. It is pursuing opportunities in northern Mexico as well and owns a stake in the Surrikuusikko gold field in Finland. For many years Agnico-Eagle has been one of the lowest cost producers in North America, a company that has steadfastly refused to engage in hedging (selling future gold production at a set price as a precautionary measure), instead selling all of its production at the spot price of gold.

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NickelOdious – by Jon Nadler (Kitco Metals – June 13, 2011)

Jon Nadler is a Senior Metals Analyst – Kitco Metals

A further decline in crude oil prices conspired to drag most of the commodities’ complex to lower value ground as the new trading week commenced. Thus, precious metals lost chart altitude levels as well, despite the minor, 0.15 loss recorded in the US dollar index this morning.

Part of the early selling pressure was related to investors’ raising cash to cover margin calls incurred in the wake of the sixth consecutive losing session in the equity markets on Friday. However, at the end of the day (or, shall we say, the beginning thereof) reports that China’s economy is slowing (and perhaps more than just a tad) coupled with posturing by Saudi Arabia that it might ratchet supplies of black gold higher in coming weeks were the prime catalysts for the price dips we witnessed this morning.

As regards China, the prospects of a possible “hard landing” by that country’s economy were brought into discussion once again. NYU’s Dr. Nouriel Roubini said that he does not see the combination of China’s reliance on fixed investment (now running at about half of its GDP), its lurking “massive non-performing loan problem” plus its huge amount of overcapacity as resulting in any kind of a rosy outcome. For Dr. Roubini, the period after the year 2013 presents a “meaningful probability” for a Chinese economic “runway disaster” unless the aforementioned issues are tackled and resolved.

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Ontario Mining Association (OMA) members partner to help train, graduate and hire First Nations employees

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

Mining is the largest private sector employer of Aboriginals in Canada.  Aboriginals
represent 7.5% of the mining workforce.  Between 1996 and 2006, there was a 43%
increase in the number of Aboriginals employed in the mineral sector rising from
2,600 to more than 4,500.  In the five years since 2006, this number has increased
significantly as more mining exploration and development takes place in areas
close to Aboriginal communities. (OMA)

Six First Nation members, who graduated recently from an underground miner training program, have found instant employment with Ontario Mining Association members Northgate Minerals and Dumas Contracting.  A partnership between these companies and the Matachewan First Nation under the Matachewan Aboriginal Access to Mine Jobs Training Strategy (MAATS) created these employment opportunities.

The second group of graduates under this MAATS program included David Batisse, Dustin Roy, John Cloutier and Chad Larkman from the Matachewan First Nation, Katlin Maurer from Beaverhouse First Nation and Kohl Porter of the Mattagami First Nation.   Three of the graduates have been hired by Northgate Minerals and three have been hired by Dumas Contracting.

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Ontario’s Ring of Fire: An Issue of Sustainability – by Patrick Whiteway (Canadian Mining Review Blog – May 29, 2011)

Canadian Mining Review: Discussing ideas and issues related to mining in Canada 

Our national mineral development strategy should include a requirement
to use mineral resources to our advantage by processing them prior to export.
(Patrick Whiteway)

The close proximity of Ontario’s Ring of Fire, Manitoba’s Thompson Nickel Belt and low carbon-emitting hydro power, give Canada an unparalleled opportunity to become a long-term, sustainable producer of stainless steel, the enviro-metal. If only the sustainability of the northern boreal forest could be assured as well.

Massive deposits of chromite and nickel have been discovered in the ‘Ring of Fire’ under the boreal forest of northwestern Ontario and plans by Cliffs Natural Resources and Noront Resources respectively to develop them are well underway. How this development is managed by the federal and provincial governments could be historically significant for resource development in Canada.

The scale of the undertaking is huge. It could, in the next 10 years, create Canada’s first chromite mine and with an appropriate level of visionary leadership, could also transform Canada into the lowest-carbon-emitting source of stainless steel on the planet.

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Papua New Guinea [Ramu nickel laterite project] and China’s New Empire – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – January 3, 2009)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous impact and influence on Canada’s political and business elite as well as the rest of the country’s print, radio and television media. Please note that this article was orginally published January 3, 2009.

MADANG, Papua New Guinea

When Chinese engineers landed in Papua New Guinea in 2006 to inspect their latest mineral acquisition, they faced an arduous journey through the tropical wilderness. They drove over crumbling roads to the Ramu River, then found natives with dugout canoes to paddle them upstream. Next, they hired another team of locals with machetes to slash a rough trail for eight hours through the steamy jungle, dodging poisonous snakes and malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

“It was terrible,” recalls Wang Chun, the chief engineer. “You couldn’t breathe.”

Today, less than three years later, a series of small Chinatowns has emerged in the jungle — complete with Chinese food, Chinese satellite television channels and crews of Chinese migrant labourers living in cheap dormitory huts. Where once was wilderness, you find the workers of China Metallurgical Group Corp., toiling seven days a week and chattering about their families back home in Beijing and Sichuan.

It hasn’t been easy. The state-owned mining company has dealt with violent clashes with local landowners, striking workers, attacks from the media and unfriendly police who arrested more than 200 Chinese technicians on charges of illegally entering the country.

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NEWS RELEASE: Sherritt Provides Revised Estimates for the Ambatovy [Nickel Laterite] Project

TORONTO, June 14, 2011 – Sherritt International Corporation (TSX: S) today announced, following completion of a review of the estimated schedule and associated capital cost of the Ambatovy Project, that the Board of Directors has approved a revised schedule that anticipates first metal in first quarter 2012 and an associated capital cost estimate of US$5.5 billion, excluding financing charges, foreign exchange and working capital requirements. Sherritt will fund its 40% of the capital cost increase directly from funds on hand.

The 16% (US$740 million) increase from the prior estimate is attributable to:

• inaccurate bulk material quantity estimates (including piping and electrical materials), the additional cost to procure, ship and install the materials, as well as the impact of poor performance by certain contractors (US$300 million, or 41% of the increase);
• additional service costs associated with the extension of the schedule, including site support services (which include food and accommodation), and additional EPCM services (US$195 million, or 26% of the increase); and

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Nickel Sulfide Versus Laterite: The Hard Sustainability Challenge Remains – by Gavin M. Mudd (2009)

Gavin M. Mudd works at the Environmental Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University, CLAYTON, Victoria, Australia 3800 (Gavin.Mudd@eng.monash.edu.au)

“A major concern with this increasing proportion of laterite nickel is that, although technology such as HPAL now exists to make processing of laterite ores more viable (technically and financially), it is widely perceived to be at a higher environmental cost.” (Gavin M. Mudd – 2009)

ABSTRACT

There are widespread nickel resources around the world, but divided principally between nickel sulfide or laterite (oxide) resources. Historically production has been dominated by sulfide ores but future production is increasing shifting to laterite ores. The principal reason for this historically is that sulfide ores are easier to process, through conventional mining, smelting and refining, compared to laterite ores which require intensive hydrometallurgical processing (such as high pressure acid leaching or HPAL).

This means that laterite ores typically require substantially more energy and chemicals to produce than sulfide nickel. Given that many major nickel companies report annually on their sustainability performance, such as Eramet, Inco (now Vale Inco), WMC Resources (now BHP Billiton), Norilsk Nickel, there is data available to examine in detail the differences in the environmental costs of nickel sulfide versus laterite.

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NEWS RELEASE: Watts Griffis McOuat releases Cu-Ni-PGE Study [for best Canadian exploration targets]

Watts, Griffis and McOuat Limited (“WGM”) is Canada’s longest running (established in 1962) independent firm of geological and mining consultants providing value-added professional services of the highest standards to the global mineral resource industry.

May 10th, 2011

WGM has completed a yearlong study of potential Cu-Ni-PGE exploration targets in Canada. The objective of the study was to identify underexplored areas that exhibit significant exploration potential.

WGM’s team, led by J. Konnunaho, a geologist from the Finnish Geological Survey and an expert in such mineralization, reviewed and prepared an outline of prospective areas in Canada hosting the most favourable depositional environments that could contain such types of mineralization. The study identified and examined 26 such settings, all of which have various levels of demonstrated potential for hosting Cu-Ni-PGE deposits. Targets were then selected based on the following search criteria;

1) current economic potential;

2) accessibility to exploration (remote areas impact exploration costs);

3) geological setting, the presence of those features most favourable for Ni-Cu-PGE mineralization;

4) demonstrated historical and or recent exploration results;

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The Charges Against Big Nickel [in 1946 by U.S. government] – by Richard Mills (Jun 9, 2011)

Richard Mills owns no shares of any companies mentioned in this report and none are advertisers on his site www.aheadoftheherd.com

As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information

In 1946, in New York City, the Anti-Trust Division of the Department of Justice filed a complaint against Inco and its wholly owned U.S. subsidiary, International Nickel Co. Inc.

Canada’s Inco, at the time, owned 90% of the world’s nickel ore and supplied 90% of U.S. nickel needs.

The charges brought were:

■Conspiracy to prevent competition in the nickel industry
■Fixing prices
■Making cartel agreements with I. G. Farbenindustrie, A. G. and two French companies to prevent competition and peg prices in the world market

The Department of Justice said the nickel industry ceased to be competitive earlier in the century when Charles Schwab arranged a merger between Canadian companies with nickel ore and U.S. companies with the chemical process for separating nickel from copper. Holdings of this combine were consolidated under Inco, Ltd. in 1928.

How ironic that in 2010 the US did not have any active nickel mines. Nickel has a very interesting history and is still extremely important in the everyday functioning of our modern economies.

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