The Canadian Mining Journal is Canada’s first mining publication.

This article was originally published – February/2008

Coal division

Coal contributed 7% of Sherritt’s revenue in the first nine months of 2007.

2003 was a pivotal year for the coal industry in western Canada, when the two major ownership groups exchanged thermal and metallurgical coal assets. Through its ownership of Luscar Coal Income Fund, Sherritt consolidated its holdings in thermal coal, while metallurgical coal was consolidated in the Elk Valley Coal Partnership.

Sherritt International and the Ontario Teachers’Pension Plan each own 41.2% interest in the Royal Utilities Income Fund, which controls Prairie Mines & Royalty Ltd. Sherritt manages the operations at PMRL’s eight surface mines in Alberta and Saskatchewan. The production from these mines is almost all sold to nearby coal-fired electrical generating plants. As well, Sherritt and the Ontario Teachers’ each own half of the Coal Valley export thermal coal mine in Alberta, which is operated by Sherritt.

While coal was not initially one of Sherritt’s traditional core businesses, it is now a substantial part of the Sherritt puzzle. The company moves 500 million tonnes (t) of material each year to mine 40 million t of coal, making Sherritt the largest surface miner in Canada.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Canadian Mining Journal is Canada’s first mining publication.

This article was originally published – February/2008

Sherritt International is a resources company built from the bricks of a Canadian nickel miner, which recently celebrated its 80th anniversary, shown by the timeline in this article. Despite the intervening decades and corporate upheavals, Sherritt is still a nickel company grounded in the strength of its research, technical innovation and operational expertise. But it has become international, and is aggressively focusing on growth in all its business units–metals, coal, power generation, and oil and gas.

In a recent two-hour interview with the company’s president and CEO Jowdat Waheed at its uptown Toronto head office, I learned that Sherritt has decided to get its story in front of the public, which prompted Waheed to invite me to visit the company’s metals, technology and coal offices and facilities in western Canada followed by a trip to see its Cuban assets, all in four days in early February. It is from this brief immersion that I bring you a snapshot of Sherritt International, today.

Metals division

This is by far the largest part of the company, bringing in 62% of Sherritt’s revenue and 80% of its operating earnings in the first nine months of 2007.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Canadian Mining Journal is Canada’s first mining publication.

This article was originally published – August/2005

Everything you wanted to know about laterites but were afraid to ask

The last few years of the 20th Century were not very kind to the nickel industry. In October and December of 1998 the LME price for nickel dipped to US$1.76 a pound, the lowest level ever, if you factor in inflation. The imploding Russian economy was dumping nickel on western markets, the Asian currency crisis was annihilating economic growth and metal demand, and new lower-cost mine production was threatening to come on stream.

Of great concern to Canadian nickel giants Inco Ltd. and Falconbridge Ltd., the second and third largest producers after Russian MMC Norilsk, was an upstart Australian company called Anaconda Nickel Ltd.

Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, Anaconda’s chairman, was well known in Australian mining circles for his legendary salesmanship and determination. One could almost imagine him pounding the table like Nikita Khrushchev and boasting that “he would bury the West with low-cost laterite nickel.”

Read the rest of this entry »

The Canadian Mining Journal is Canada’s first mining publication.

This article was originally published – April/2006

Another large Canadian nickel laterite project is Ambatovy in eastern Madagascar, off the east coast of southern Africa. The project is owned by Dynatec Corp. of Richmond Hill, Ont., and Sumitomo Corp. of Tokyo.

Ambatovy was studied extensively from 1989-95 by Phelps Dodge Corp., which sold 100% interest in the project to Dynatec between 2004 and January 2005. A bankable feasibility study, co-ordinated by SNC-Lavalin Engineers & Constructors, was released in February 2005. The results were positive, but the estimated capital expenditure was US$2.25 billion — too expensive for Dynatec to carry alone.

The company sought and found two partners. In May 2005 it signed an agreement with Impala Platinum Holdings of Johannesburg for 50% interest. Sumitomo purchased 25% interest in August 2005, reducing Implats’ and Dynatec’ holdings to 37.5% each. A shareholders agreement was signed between the three parties in mid-October, but six weeks later came news that must have been bitter. A Nov. 28 news release said, “Implats has advised that it has determined that the benefits to Implats which it had initially anticipated from the project do not now appear to be achievable.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Marilyn Scales is a field editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication. She is one of Canada’s most senior mining commentators.This article was originally published – April/2006

Another major Canadian player in New Caledonian nickel is Toronto’s Falconbridge Ltd. (soon to be swallowed by Inco Ltd.). Falconbridge and its 51% joint venture partner Société Minière du Sud Pacifique S.A. (SMSP), are developing the Koniambo Project in the northern part of the island for start up, perhaps as early as 2009.

Last month, Falconbridge and SMSP (which is owned primarily by the North Province) created an operating company, Koniambo Nickel S.A.S. under the leadership of president Brian Kenny. Koniambo Nickel will hold title to the Koniambo deposit. On March 1, the French minister of overseas territories François Baroin laid the ceremonial first stone for the Koniambo project.

The following day the Koniambo Nickel board met to approve this year’s work program. Preparing the earthworks and advancing the project engineering are the top priorities for 2006. Dredging of a port will begin early in 2007, and the main construction period will be 2008-09. Production will begin very late in 2009 or early in 2010.

Read the rest of this entry »

Marilyn Scales is a field editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication. She is one of Canada’s most senior mining commentators.This article was originally published – April/2006

New Caledonia, a French island territory 1,600 km off the northeast coast of Australia, is home to an estimated 25% of the world’s known nickel reserves. With rich laterite and saprolite deposits, it is no wonder this island nation is the scene of increased mining activity. A subsidiary of Paris-based Eramet currently owns five mines and a smelter scattered across the island. The other producer is Société Minière du Sud Pacifique S.A. It, too, has several mines supplying an Australian smelter.

The Goro Nickel Deposit, tucked away on the southern tip of New Caledonia, is one of the world’s largest undeveloped laterite deposits. But not for long. Construction of the mine, mineral processing plant, and extensive infrastructure is moving ahead quickly toward a start-up date of late 2007.

As of the end of February 2006, engineering is over 70% done, with about 1,600 workers on the site. Earthworks for the process plant were completed in March 2006, and will continue at the residue storage facility and on road realignment. The test mine extends to the saprolite horizon and exposed bedrock. The first of almost 2,000 skilled Filipino workers will soon arrive to start on construction.

The first berth of the port will be completed in time to receive the first module of the processing plant in May. The next milestone will be completion of the first half of the coal-fired power plant in September. The second berth of the port and the raw water pipeline will be finished in time for that event.

Read the rest of this entry »