 | |
| Company type | Majority owned subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Mining |
| Predecessor | Inco |
| Founded | 4 January 2007 (2007-01-04) |
| Headquarters | Toronto,Ontario,Canada |
| Products | Nickel,copper,cobalt,PGMs |
| Revenue |  US$ 8.3 billion(2012) |
| US$ 3.8 Billion(2012) | |
Number of employees | 12,000 |
| Parent | Vale |
| Subsidiaries | PT Vale Indonesia (34.1%) |
| Website | vale.com/canada |
Vale Canada Limited, doing business asVale Base Metals,[1] is a majority owned subsidiary of theBrazilian mining companyVale with Manara Minerals holding a 10 per cent minority share. The company was created from the formerInco, which Vale acquired in 2007. Vale's nickel mining and metals division is headquartered inLondon with a corporate center inToronto. It producesnickel,copper,cobalt, and other Platinum Group Metals. 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 ofplatinum group metals. It was also a charter member of the 30-stockDow Jones Industrial Average formed on October 1, 1928.
On October 11, 2005, Inco's CEOScott Hand announced a friendly takeover bid to buy out the operations of longtime rivalFalconbridge for $12 billion.[2] If approved, the deal would have made Inco the world's largest producer of nickel. Davis'sXstrata (which already owned ~20% of Falconbridge shares) subsequently submitted ahostile takeover bid for Falconbridge, resulting in a bidding war between Inco and Xstrata. The Xstrata bid was successful, but not before Falconbridge employed apoison pill to delay the acquisition, raising its share price from $28 to $62.50 in the meantime.[3][4][5]
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.[6] 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a friendly takeover bid to purchase a combined Inco and Falconbridge for around $40 billion;[7] that offer was also withdrawn because of the failure of the Inco-Falconbridge merger.[3][8][9][10]
On August 14, 2006 Brazilian mining companyVale S.A. (aka 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.[11] 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 atOnca Puma andVermelho in Brazil, were transferred to Inco's management. Inco was delisted from theNYSE on November 16, 2006 and theTSX on January 5, 2007. According to its current web site, Inco is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Vale (formerly CVRD).[3]
The2009-10 Vale-Inco strike lasted 15 months; one of the longest on record in Canada.[12]
In May 2010, Vale 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".[13][14]
In 2015, Vale was said to be exploring an IPO of its base metals unit for $30–35 billion, in order to lighten its debt load.[15]
In May 2023 it was announced thatMark Cutifani would be appointed as Chair of the newVale Base Metals (VBM) subsidiary of global mining giantVale S.A.[16] Vale was looking to divest from its tar baby,[17] as early as December 2022.[18] At the time VBM was a supplier toTesla andGeneral Motors (GM).[18] Reports were afoot that GM,Mitsui, and theSaudi Public Investment Fund were interested buyers of a 10% stake.[18] Former Tesla executiveJerome Guillen would join the "energy transition board" of VBM along with Cutifani.[19]
In May 2023 it was announced that VBM had entered a joint venture with theFord Motor Company andHuayou Cobalt on a $4.5bn nickel processing facility inIndonesia.[16]
Vale spun out its metals business as a separate ringfenced entity headquartered in Toronto, with an independent board chaired by Cutifani. That process completed in July 2023. The unit was then one of the world's largest producers of nickel, copper, and cobalt, and had operations across the globe. The parent company's chief executiveEduardo Bartolomeo stated that Cutifani could help the division explore a future “liquidity event”.[19][20] In early 2023, the parent company earned 80% of its profits in its South American iron mines, and the balance from its Base Metals group.[16]
In July 2023 Cutifani sold off 10% of the capital to theSaudi Public Investment Fund and 3% toEngine No. 1. The value of the transaction was $3.4 billion.[21]
As of May 2024, Vale Canada was reported to have a sales agreement with "Xstrata Copper Canada" for the sale of copper anodes and copper concentrates produced in Sudbury.[22]
In 2006 Inco was removed from theFTSE4Good Index for failing to meet their human rights criteria.[23] The company has had disputes with native groups and environmental concerns over mine runoff.
Employees for Inco in Canada are represented by theUnited 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 worker."[24] The unions includeConfederação 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 theUnited Steelworkers.
Inco is a central theme in theStompin' Tom Connors song "Sudbury Saturday Night". More recently, theCreighton Mine, owned by Vale and hosting theSudbury Neutrino Observatory, figures largely in the plot ofRobert J. Sawyer'sNeanderthal Parallax trilogy.
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