Vale’s Long Goodbye: 2,814 days adding up to 7 years, 8 months and 15 days

The Sword of Damocles dangles no longer.

Today is the day Tito Martins, then president and chief executive officer of Vale Canada and executive director of base metals for the Brazilian international parent company, told us was coming on Nov. 17, 2010 – 2,814 days ago, or expressed another way, seven years, eight months and 15 days ago. The day the Thompson smelter and refinery officially cease production and Thompson ceases to be a fully integrated nickel operation for the first time since March 1961.

Mind you, July 31, 2018 – today – is something of an arbitrary bookkeeping sort of marker. At the time of Martins’ 2010 announcement, the closing date was announced as 2015, so we’ve had about three extra years of nickel smelting and refining. As for the actual ramp down, the last furnace tap from the one remaining furnace in operation and anode cast from the smelter and the last cathode pulled from the refinery happened earlier this month. The recently completed Thompson Concentrate Loadout Facility, a fully functioning de-watering and loadout facility, will continue to ship Manitoba-source nickel concentrate from the Thompson Mill for further processing to Vale’s hydromet processing facility in Long Harbour in southeast Newfoundland on Placentia Bay on the western Avalon Peninsula, about 100 kilometres from St. John’s, as milling and mining continue in Thompson, albeit with a much smaller economic, and employment footprint, with just under 600 unionized Steelworkers remaining at Vale here by the end of the year.

Nickel smelting and refining here in Thompson has been a long and glorious run of value-added jobs, producing some of the finest electrolytic nickel plating in the world since Sept. 10, 1960 when the Thompson Smelter produced its first Bessemer nickel matte, and about six months later on March 30, 1961, when the Thompson Refinery produced its first nickel cathodes. At its peak, the smelter operated five furnaces, four nickel and one copper, and between September 1960 and July 2018 produced more than 16.6 million anodes. Between March 1961 and July 2018, the refinery produced more than five billion pounds of electro-nickel, with more than 90 per cent of the nickel produced being plating-grade quality.

There were several key dates in Thompson’s early history: Borehole 11962 – the so-called “Discovery Hole” at Cook Lake, a diamond drill exploration hole – was collared Feb. 5, 1956 and assayed positive for nickel. There’s also the Dec. 3, 1956 signing of the founding 33-page typewritten double-spaced agreement creating Thompson between the Province of Manitoba’s F.C. Bell, minister of mines and natural resources, and International Nickel Company of Canada Limited’s Ralph Parker, vice-president and general manager, and secretary William F. Kennedy. And there was Manitoba Liberal-Progressive Premier Douglas Campbell driving the last spike in the Canadian National Railway (CNR) 30-mile branch line from Sipiwesk to Thompson Oct. 20, 1957.

Thompson, originally a townsite within the newly-created 975-square-mile Local Government District (LGD) of Mystery Lake, within the Dauphin Judicial District, from 1956 to 1966, became a town on Jan. 3, 1967 and a city just three years later on July 7, 1970.

But the key date in Thompson’s history, at least before today? That would be March 25, 1961, when Progressive Conservative Premier Duff Roblin “cut the nickel ribbon to officially open the town” of 3,800 residents Nickel Belt News founding publisher and then owner Grant Wright wrote a few days later on March 29, 1961. The Nickel Belt News came into existence on March 24, 1961 – one day before Roblin and a who’s who of government and mining crème de la crèmes – opened the $185-million smelter and refinery, the free world’s first fully integrated nickel operation and second in size in the “free world” only to Inco’s Sudbury operations. Brazilian mining giant Vale purchased Canadian nickel producer Inco Ltd. in 2006 in an $18.2 billion takeover.

“The establishment of this new, major industry is another step in the developing economic might of the nation,” said Roblin standing at the Inco refinery and smelter site here March 25, 1961. “Indeed, through its products it will contribute to the advancement of the free world. With the need to create new international markets to sustain our economic growth, the export of a finished product – electrolytic nickel – has important ramifications.”

You can also follow me on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/jwbarker22

 

Home Routes returns Feb. 6 after its 2½-month Christmas hiatus with St. John’s traditional folk singer and acoustic guitarist Matthew Byrne

Anyone in Thompson from Down East? How about more exactly “The Rock” a.k.a. Newfoundland and Labrador? Eh b’y, thought so.

Matthew Byrne, a traditional folk singer and acoustic guitarist, gets the kitchen party started next Friday night for the second half of Home Routes’ sixth season in Thompson over at Tim and Jean Cameron’s place at 206 Campbell Dr. Show time is 7:15 p.m. Feb.6 and tickets are $20 at the door and the coffee will be on. For more information give Tim or Jean a call at 204-677-3574 or send them an e-mail at: cameron8@mymts.net

Tim and Jean Cameron moved here from Ashern three years ago. The Camerons were also Home Routes hosts in Ashern for three years before coming here. Tim’s day job is as a uniformed armed peace officer with Manitoba Conservation and Water Stewardship – the province’s chief natural resource officer. Jean Cameron is the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) branch manager here. Tim is also known as a guitar-playing folkie from the late 1980s, whose talents were first on display here long ago at the old Thompson Folk Festival, during an earlier stint working and living here in his 20s. He’s even been known to pick up an acoustic guitar the odd time at the end of a Home Routes concert here and join the performer and whoever else wants to jam in keeping the kitchen party cooking awhile longer.

Home Routes is coming off its traditional 2½-month Christmas hiatus after three fall shows, which featured Allan Fraser and Marianne Girard last Nov. 20; Jolene Higgins, better known by many perhaps by her stage name of “Little Miss Higgins” on Oct. 22; and Deep Cove, Nova Scotia area country bluesman Morgan Davis, who kicked off season six here on the Borealis Trail Sept. 23.  Other stops on the Borealis Trail beside Thompson include Flin Flon, The Pas and Minitonas and Swan River Valley in Manitoba and in Saskatchewan, Buena Vista, Annaheim, Prince Albert, Napatak, Melfort and Greenwater Lake Provincial Park. Other circuits on Home Routes include the Yukon Trail; Salmon-Berry in British Columbia; Cherry Bomb and Blue Moon in British Columbia and Alberta; Chautauqua Trail in Saskatchewan and Alberta; CCN SK in Saskatchewan; Central Plains in Saskatchewan and Manitoba; Jeanne Bernardin in Manitoba, Agassiz in Manitoba and Ontario; Estelle-Klein in Ontario and Québec and the Maritimes in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

Byrne was born into a family of  Placentia Bay, Newfoundland music makers and his repertoire is heavily influenced by that singing tradition that thrives on the two basic elements of the song – the weaving of a great story with a beautiful melody. His parents moved from Placentia Bay to St. John’s during the period of the so-called “No Great Future” and other government resettlements where 307 communities were abandoned between 1946 and 1975 and more than 28,000 people relocated in a farbed up bid to bring rural residents from fishing communities in danger of financial collapse to the capital for some urban modernization with its requisite central regulation.

Byrne’s first album, Ballads, was released in 2011. His most recent album, Hearts & Heroes, was released last May 31.

You can also follow me on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/jwbarker22

Jennifer Maki takes over as Vale’s executive director of base metals as Peter Poppinga replaces José Carlos Martins as executive director for ferrous minerals; Vale CEO Murilo Ferreira joins Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Paul Davis in Long Harbour to mark nickel production at the new processing plant

Jennifer Maki, a chartered accountant who joined Vale in Canada almost 12 years ago in January 2003, was named Nov. 14  as Vale’s executive director of base metals as Peter Poppinga replaces  José Carlos Martins as executive director for ferrous minerals. Martins left the company as iron ore, which is the Brazilian mining giant’s main commodity, continues to slump in price with no end in sight.

Poppinga, who had replaced Tito Martins as chief executive officer of Vale Canada and executive director of base metals and information technology in November 2011, led 16 operating sites around the world and in Vale’s quest for asset base optimization over the last three years.

Maki, who has an undergraduate degree in commerce from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, has served as executive vice-president and chief financial officer of Vale Canada since September 2007. Before joining Vale as an assistant controller for financial planning in 2003, she had worked as a chartered accountant for PricewaterhouseCoopers for almost 10 years.

In a March 2013 interview with Upfront, the in-house magazine of PricewaterhouseCoopers, her former employer, Maki observed, among other things, that Vale’s “workforce in Brazil, for example, is much more mobile and they’re much more willing to pursue opportunities outside of their home cities and towns than people are in Canada.” Maki, commenting on how Inco’s culture changed after its 2007 merger with Vale, said, ” We’ve probably become more performance driven by key performance indicators and metrics. You see it right through Vale from their compensation packages to how people are rewarded. I think part of that is coming from a country like Brazil, where there’s a very hungry group of people who have grown up in a developing country. I think they’ve instilled that here and made some major changes across our Canadian operations.”

Since last January, Maki has been the chief financial and administrative officer for base metals, as well as participating in the management of base metals businesses outside Canada. She has been a member of the Board of Commissioners of PT Vale Indonesia Tbk (PTVI) since 2007 and recently became its president commissioner.

Poppinga was born in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. He holds a master’s degree in business administration from Fundacao Dom Cabral in Brazil. He received a degree in geology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in 1980 and Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in Erlangen, Germany and a post-graduate degree in geology and mine engineering from Clausthal University of Technology in Clausthal-Zellerfeld Germany in 1984, with specialist diplomas in geo-statistics from the Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto in Minas Gerais, Brazil, and strategic mega trends from Asia Focus, Kellogg Singapore.

He speaks four languages including Portuguese, English, German and French. He worked for S.A. Mineracao da Trindade (SAMITRI) from 1984 until it was acquired by Vale in 1999, when he joined Vale as commercial director and general manager of the iron ore business in New York for Vale subsidiary Rio Doce America before moving to Rio Doce International, Belgium where he led Vale’s market and sales activities in Europe from 2000 to 2004. Between 2005 and 2007, he was president of Vale International S.A. in Switzerland, and from 2008 until the end of 2009 he was executive vice-president human resources at Vale (then Vale Inco) in Toronto.

In January 2010, Poppinga moved to Australia when he was named vice-president for base metals operations for the Asia and Pacific region where he was responsible for operations in Indonesia, New Caledonia, China and Japan.

Vale has mining operations on five continents in 38 countries. Its base metals business is headquartered in Toronto. Vale is the second largest mining company in the world by market capitalization.

Vale CEO Murilo Ferreira, who joins Newfoundland and Labrador Tory Premier Paul Davis, Minister of Natural Resources Derrick Dalle and Conservative Senator Norman Doyle in Long Harbour Nov. 19 to mark nickel production at the new processing plant, is a former CEO of Vale Canada. Ferreira served almost two years as the top Vale official in Canada, starting when the Brazilian mining giant finalized its purchase of Inco in January 2007. He had originally joined Vale in 1977. In 1998 he was appointed executive officer of commerce and finance at Vale do Rio Doce Alumínio S.A.-ALUVALE, a holding company of Vale that was merged into Vale in December 2003. Much of his experience is in aluminum and ferroalloys.

He was chief executive officer of Vale Inco, currently known as Vale Canada, in Toronto and executive director of nickel and base metals sales of Vale when he left the company for personal reasons at the end of 2008 and was replaced by Tito Martins. Ferreira rejoined Vale and replaced Roger Agnelli as CEO on May 22, 2011.

The event in Long Harbour Wednesday begins at 8 a.m. Central Standard Time at the processing plant in the product packaging area.

The Long Harbour Processing Plant  will employ about 475 people at full production. Long Harbour, a state-of-the-art hydrometallurgy, or “hydromet” for short, processing facility in southeast Newfoundland on Placentia Bay on the western Avalon Peninsula, about 100 kilometres from St. John’s, and Vale’s Voisey’s Bay mine  and concentrator in Labrador are an integrated operation. Nickel concentrate from Voisey’s Bay will be shipped to Long Harbour to be processed into finished nickel and associated copper and cobalt products.

Hydrometallurgy is a chemical process combining water, oxygen or other substances in a pressurized or other vessel to dissolve a metal from its ore, concentrate or an intermediate product (such as matte).

The nickel industry worldwide has traditionally smelted concentrates produced from nickel, copper and cobalt sulphide ores to make an intermediate sulphide product called matte.

Hydrometallurgy has been used for refining the matte to produce high purity nickel, copper and cobalt for the market. Thus, traditional production of these metals has occurred in two steps: smelting and refining. The new hydrometallurgical process that Vale developed and will use at Long Harbour process the nickel concentrate directly to metal products without first having to smelt the concentrate.

You can also follow me on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/jwbarker22