Sherritt International

Sherritt International Corporation

Type	Public
Traded as	TSX: S
Industry	Mining, Oil and Gas
Founded	1927
Headquarters	Toronto, Ontario Canada
Key people	Harold Stephen, Chairman; David Pathe, President & CEO[1]
Products	nickel, cobalt, oil, gas, power, fertilizer
Revenue	$1.136 billion CAD (2014)[2]
Number of employees	7,670 (2011)[3]
Website	www.sherritt.com

Sherritt International is a Canadian resource company, based in Toronto, Ontario. The company's business interests include nickel and cobalt mining, oil and gas exploration and production, and electricity generation. Sherritt is one of the largest foreign investors in Cuba.

Operations

Mining

Structures on the grounds of the Sherritt plant, Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Canada.

Sherritt has most of its profit coming from mining operations. Sherritt licenses its proprietary technologies and provides metallurgical services to mining and refining operations worldwide. The company has a portfolio of mineral rights on which it earns royalties from the production of potash and other minerals.

The company has nickel laterite mines in Moa, Cuba and near Moramanga, Madagascar. Sherritt has metal refineries in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Canada and in Toamasina, Madagascar. Sherritt produces nickel, cobalt, ammonia, sulphuric acid, and ammonium sulphate at its Fort Saskatchewan facility.

The nickel and cobalt mining operations at the Ambatovy mine in Madagascar began production in second quarter 2012^[4] and the Ambatovy project received its export permit in Q3 2012.^[5] Sherritt holds 40% ownership of the project. Sherrit's partners in the project are Japan's Sumitomo Corporation and the Korea Investment Corporation. The Ambatovy project is an integrated production system encompassing all stages from mining to refinery in the same country.^[6] The Ambatovy venture has two nickel deposits located near Moramanga, Madagascar. The ore from these deposits is delivered via pipeline to a processing plant and refinery located near the Port of Toamasina.

Oil and gas

Sherritt operates oil and gas fields leased from the Cuban government (Varadero, Yumuri, Puetro Escondido) and has interest in some fields in Spain and Pakistan.^[7] Sherritt has invested CDN $215 million for the construction of two integrated gas processing and electrical generation systems in Cuba. The natural gas feedstock was previously flared and wasted. These operations commissioned in mid-2002 have a combined capacity of 226 megawatts. Sherritt has natural gas activities on the island. Sherrit built and operates a natural gas feeder pipeline network, and a 30 Kilometer pipeline to Havana. In 2010, Cuba’s onshore and coastal 2010 crude oil production was estimated at approximately 50,000 barrels per day, of which 11,128 barrels per day represents Sherritt’s net equity in that production.^[8]

In Cuba, Sherritt extended one of its existing production-sharing contracts until 2028, and signed contracts for two new blocks that have 25-year terms and together encompass more than 1,200 km² in the same area that the company is already producing. In 2015, Sherritt reported its cost to produce oil is less than US$9 per barrel.^[9]

Electricity

Sherritt owns 30% of Energas, an electricity producing company in Cuba. Energas supplies 11.6% of Cuba’s electric power.^[10] The nickel mined by the company can be used to make cheaper solar cells.^[11] Nickel is used to make batteries and new developments in batteries use nickel.^[12] Sherritt has two major joint ventures that produce cobalt. Cobalt is a primary component of battery cathodes, and cobalt is needed for electric vehicles.^[13]

Fertilizer

Sherritt owns assets, which produce fertilizer products, primarily for sale in the Western Canadian market, and which provide some of the critical input requirements for the Fort Saskatchewan metals refinery. Revenue is derived primarily from the sale of nitrogen fertilizers, and of sulphate fertilizers produced directly or indirectly as a by-product of the metals refining process.

History

The company was named after Carl Sherritt, an American citizen and teamster on local rail construction projects who, after becoming a trapper and prospector, staked copper prospects in the Cold Lake area of Manitoba; and J. Peter Gordon, a civil engineer who had also worked on the railroad construction.^[14] Eldon Brown was the company's first employee and general superintendent.^[15]

The Sherritt process, hydrometallurgical cobalt extraction techniques that enhance recovery from nickel-cobalt sulfide concentrates, is named for Sherritt Gordon Mines Ltd.

• 1927: Incorporation of Sherritt Gordon Mines Limited.^[16]
• 1954: Construction of the refinery at Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta.^[16]
• 1957: Sherritt purchased the interests of Chemico in all patents in the chemical metallurgical field in which Sherritt was involved.
• 1991: Sherritt acquires Canada Northwest Energy Limited, a producer of oil and gas.^[16]
• 1993: Company renamed to Sherritt Inc.^[16]
• 1994: Sherritt becomes the largest producer of nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers in Canada after acquiring fertilizer assets from Imperial Oil Limited.^[16]
• 1995: Incorporation of Sherritt International Corporation, with interest in mining, oil and gas and technology business in Cuba. Nickel, cobalt, oil and gas production begins in Cuba.^[16]
• 1996: Sherritt sells most of its fertilizer businesses to Agrium.^[16]
• 1998: Creation of Sherritt Power Corporation, building gas-fired electricity generation plants in Cuba, with a 30% interest in Energas SA.^[16]
• 1998: Sherritt acquires 37.5 percent share of Cubacel, the cellular telephone operator in Cuba for $US 38 million. Sherritt also created a company called “Sherritt Green,” a small agricultural branch of the company, cultivating a variety of vegetables for the tourist market. Sherritt also acquired a 25 percent share of the Las Americas Hotel and golf course in Varadero and a 12.5 percent share of the Melia Habana Hotel. These investments have been sold.^[17]
• 2001: Creation of Luscar Energy Partnership in cooperation with Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board by acquiring Luscar Ltd., Canada’s largest coal producer for a deal worth $CDN 1 billion.^[18]
• 2005: Two Canadian energy conglomerates, Sherritt International and Pebercan Inc, have discovered a new oil field off Cuba's northern coast containing 100 million barrels of oil.^[19]
• 2007: Sherritt acquires Dynatec mining corporation in a friendly takeover. Among the assets was the Ambatovy mine nickel project in Madagascar.^[16][20]
• 2008: Sherritt acquires all outstanding shares from Royal Utilities Income Trust. Royal Utilities Income Trust owned Prairie Mines & Royalty Ltd, that operates thermal coal mines in Saskatchewan and Alberta.^[21][22]
• 2008: Sherritt Technologies, a Division of Sherritt International Corporation, Licenses Technology to Chinese Zinc Producer. There are more than 35 commercial plants worldwide that currently use Sherritt technology.^[23]
• 2009: Americans are now allowed to make unlimited trips and money transfers to family in Cuba sends Sherritt shares soaring 25 percent.^[24]
• 2010: Sherritt to acquire a controlling interest from Rio Tinto in the Sulawesi Nickel Project in Indonesia. The Sulawesi Project currently ranks as one of the largest known undeveloped, greenfield laterite nickel deposits in the world.^[25]
• 2011: Sherritt doubles its quarterly profit, selling in the three-month period, 9.4 million pounds of nickel, 1.1 million pounds of cobalt, 9.1 million tonnes of thermal coal, 1.1 million barrels of oil and 159 gigawatts of electricity.^[26]
• 2013: Takota Asset Management urges Sherritt to begin a share buy back program.^[27]
• 2013: Sherritt increases dividend.^[28]
• 2013: S&P Dow Jones Canadian Index Services makes changes in the S&P/TSX Canadian Indices adding Sherritt to the S&P/TSX Equity Income Index.^[29]
• 2014: Sherritt sells coal investments for 946 million (CDN) to Westmoreland.^[30][31]

Accidents

• On November 22, 2016, four employees of Sherritt International were killed while they were undertaking repairs on a municipal bridge in Moa, Cuba that had been damaged by Hurricane Matthew, which hit Cuba nearly two months earlier. The employees were trying to restore access between Moa and a mining site.^[32]

References

External links

• Sherritt International Corporation Official site.
• History of Sherritt's Hydrometallurgical Technology
• Ambatovy Project Official site.
• Sherritt International Financial Reports
• Sherritt International at Yahoo Finance