This backgrounder was written by Ken Cherney and researched by Ron Orasi for Inco Limited employees worldwide in August 1989. Please note that this backgrounder is from the company perspective. Many controversial issues have been omitted however it is still a valuable historical document.
Mond Nickel
Outstanding in Stanley’s program was the consolidation with The Mond Nickel Company, Limited, early in 1929, to form The International Nickel Company of Canada, Limited. The marriage made for an efficient development of ore reserves and the economical treatment of the ore mined. It also brought into a single unit, one organization to satisfy some 75 per cent of the world’s annual nickel consumption.
During this period, Stanley and his colleagues had succeeded in establishing a market for a product that had little demand when they stared. It was time for him to change the character of the corporation. In his 1931 speech to a gathering of shareholder he said: “The Company’s main activity has ceased to be that of mining. Its works and business are day by day becoming more commercial and widespread throughout the world, and the Company’s success now depends less on the ore reserves than on the ability to find, or make, markets which will take the manufactured product of the Company.”