Completed the first year of the Cobalt Swap, receiving the annual maximum amount of cobalt from the Moa JV and a top-up cash dividend to achieve the annual minimum amount and correspondingly reduced the Cuban receivable. Announced a 110% increase in Proven and Probable mineral reserves for nickel at the Moa JV, extending the mine life 14 years to 2048, supported by an updated NI 43-101 Technical Report. Construction of phase one of the Moa JV expansion, the slurry preparation plant, was completed during the year with ramp up and ore feed to the plant at design capacity commencing in January 2024. Phase two of the expansion remains on schedule for an expected end of year 2024 completion with commissioning and ramp up in 2025.
Embarked on an expansion program to increase annual mixed sulphide precipitate (MSP) production by 20%. The low capital intensity program consisting of construction of a new slurry preparation plant and processing plant enhancements is scheduled for completion in 2024.
Finalized agreements with its Cuban partners to recover $368 million total outstanding Cuban receivables over five years beginning January 1, 2023 (the Cobalt Swap) under which the Moa JV will prioritize payment of cobalt and cash dividends to each partner. Sherritt’s Cuban partner’s share of dividends will be redirected to Sherritt as payment to settle the receivables until the annual maximum cobalt volume and minimum dollar amount limits, including the collection of any prior year shortfalls, has been reached. Repurchased approximately $150 million principal amount of notes at a 16% discount reducing debt by 35% from the beginning of the year and annual interest expense of approximately $13 million. Received approval for extension of the Energas Joint Venture contract to March 2043, and finalized extension of the Moa Swap agreement to support liquidity and secure sustainable operations.
Sherritt completed a balance sheet initiative aimed at improving the Corporation’s liquidity which resulted in reducing debt levels by more than $300 million, annual cash interest payments by $16 million, extending our first material debt repayment to November 2026, and exchanging our 12% interest the Ambatovy Joint Venture for amounts owed to the Ambatovy Partners.
Sherritt’s Cuban partners ratify overdue receivables agreement for the repayment of US$150 million.
Sherritt reaches 3 billion pounds of nickel production at its refinery in Fort Saskatchewan. AB
Sherritt further strengthened its balance sheet by repurchasing $130 million of debentures following a successful equity unit offering.
Full-year net direct cash cost at the Moa Joint Venture is in the lowest quartile for the second consecutive year making the joint venture the lowest cost HPAL producer in the world.
Sherritt celebrated its 90th Anniversary.
Sherritt eliminated $1.4 billion of debt following the restructuring of the Ambatovy Joint Venture and a change in its ownership interest to 12%.
Sherritt bondholders support a 3-year extension of maturities.
Ambatovy partner negotiations proceed around "40 for 12" issue.
Sherritt achieves production test milestone (~90% of nameplate capacity measured over 90 days in a 100-day continuous period) and financial completion at Ambatovy.
Sherritt achieves commercial production at Ambatovy.
Sherritt completes divestiture of coal business.
Retirement of Ian W. Delaney, founding Chairman.
Sherritt entered into agreements to sell its Coal operations for total consideration of $946 million to two separate companies. Sherritt announces it will no longer pursue the Sulawesi Nickel Project.
Production of finished nickel and cobalt commences at Ambatovy.
Construction at Ambatovy is completed.
Sherritt purchases remaining interest in Coal Valley Partnership in June. Quarterly dividend increased to $0.038 per share in fourth quarter 2010. Sherritt acquires controlling interest in the Sulawesi Nickel Project in Indonesia in December 2010.
150 MW power expansion at Boca de Jaruco commences. Sherritt suspends expansion activities due to global financial crisis. Sherritt acquires all outstanding units of Royal Utilities Income Fund in May 2008.
Sherritt acquires Dynatec Corporation, including a 40% ownership in the Ambatovy Nickel Project. Sherritt Technologies is formed, including the former Dynatec Metallurgical Technologies operations, to utilize and license the Corporations 50+ years of hydrometallurgical research, development and commercial process implementation. 65 MW power expansion completed.
Metals Enterprise expansion initiated at Moa, Cuba. 85 MW power expansion is completed and a new 65 MW expansion begins.
Sherritt Metals Fort Site celebrates 2 billion pounds cumulative nickel production. Two million tonne Coal Valley mine expansion announced; construction is completed the next year. A quarterly dividend is initialized, beginning with $0.25 per share.
Sherritt celebrates 50 years of operations at the Fort Saskatchewan refinery. Through its minority interest in Energas, Sherritt begins construction on an 85 MW expansion in Cuba.
Luscar Energy Partnership acquires the Canadian thermal coal assets of Fording Inc. Sherritt sells its interest in Cubacel.
Sherritt and a partner acquire Canada's largest coal producer, Luscar Ltd., creating the Luscar Energy Partnership.
Sherritt creates Sherritt Power Corporation which constructs and operates power-generating facilities in Cuba through a one-third ownership in Energas SA. Sherritt purchases 37.5% of the company operating Cubacel, the cellular telephone operator in Cuba.
Sherritt acquires Dynatec International Ltd. and merges it with Sherritt’s metallurgical consulting business, creating Dynatec Corporation which is spun out as a separate public company.
Sherritt Inc. changes its name to Viridian Inc., which merges with a wholly owned subsidiary of Agrium Inc. Sherritt International acquires certain utilities, fertilizer and other assets in Fort Saskatchewan, from which it produces and sells fertilizer, and supplies inputs and utilities to the nickel and cobalt refinery.
Sherritt Inc. creates Sherritt International Corporation, an independent Canadian public company. Sherritt Inc. retains the fertilizer business, Canadian oil and gas properties and the specialty metals and technology businesses.
Sherritt acquires fertilizer assets from Imperial Oil Limited and becomes the largest producer of nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers in Canada and one of the largest fertilizer producers in the world. Sherritt extends its nickel and cobalt refining business into a vertically integrated mining/refining business in a 50:50 joint venture with General Nickel S.A. of Cuba.
Sherritt Gordon Limited renamed Sherritt Inc. Sherritt completes an extensive refurbishment and expansion of its Fort Saskatchewan nickel and cobalt refinery to allow efficient processing of a significant new feed source, mixed sulphides from Moa Nickel.
Sherritt acquires Canada Northwest Energy Limited (CNW), a Calgary-based producer of oil and natural gas. The company begins acquiring feed from a nickel mine in Moa, Cuba, for the Fort Saskatchewan refinery.
The Fort Saskatchewan refinery is temporarily shut down due to lack of feedstock. Ian W. Delaney leads a successful proxy contest for control of Sherritt.
Sherritt and the governments of Alberta and Canada create Westaim, a co-operative venture designed to develop new advanced-materials technologies. NBS coinage plant capacity is doubled. Ultrafine copper commercial plant is commissioned.
The company sells its interest in SherrGold and is renamed Sherritt Gordon Limited. Ultrafine copper pilot plant is commissioned.
Aureate-bonded nickel coinage plant opens, contracted to supply Canadian “loonie” dollar coin blanks. Sherritt acquires United Chemical Company.
Metals refinery celebrates one-billion pounds of cumulative nickel production. Start-up of SherrGold's MacLellan gold mine occurs. The Surigao nickel refinery is officially closed.
Fox mine closes. Sherritt creates and floats SherrGold, retaining a 60% interest. Start-up of Western Platinum matte leach refinery in South Africa, under license from Sherritt, occurs.
Sherritt commissions a new world-scale (1,000 tonnes/day ammonia, 900 tonnes/day urea) nitrogen fertilizer plant in Alberta. Commissioning of Impala Platinum cobalt refinery in South Africa and Kidd Creek zinc pressure leach facility in Canada, under license from Sherritt, takes place.
Commissioning takes place of Rustenburg matte leach refinery in South Africa, under license from Sherritt.
The first zinc pressure leach plant, at Cominco in Trail, British Columbia, is commissioned. Others faciliites follow over the next 12 years at Kidd Creek in Ontario, Ruhr-Zink in Germany and Hudson's Bay Mining and Smelting in Manitoba. New NBS coinage plant opens, increasing capacity by a factor of five. TuffStuds enters commercial production.
Sherritt debottlenecks the sulphuric acid plant to achieve production of 600 tonnes/day. (Subsequent work through the 1990s/2000s results in an 800 tonnes/day operation.)
Sherritt presents the City of Fort Saskatchewan with a clock tower to celebrate 25 years of operation. Sherritt begins production of cobalt-samarium powder for rare earth magnets.
Sherritt produces medals and commemorative medallions for the Commonwealth Games.
Closure of the Lynn Lake Mine. Sherritt’s nickel refinery becomes a toll processor. Purchase of Thio-Pet Chemicals, a producer of hydrogen sulphide used in the Fort Saskatchewan refinery. Sherritt begins producing nickel-bonded steel coinage products and ultra-fine cobalt powder.
Production of refined nickel from the Marinduque-Sherritt-owned Surigao nickel laterite project on Dinagat Island in the Philippines, under license from Sherritt. This is the first commercial production of refined nickel directly from laterite ores.
Sherritt licenses its ammonia pressure leach process for nickel concentrates and mattes to Western Mining Corp (Australia), and its acid pressure leaching process for PGM-bearing nickel-copper mattes to Impala Platinum (South Africa). Sherritt starts pilot testing its laterite leach process for the Marinduque project (Philiippines).
Sherritt licenses its process for acid pressure leaching of nickel-cobalt sulphides to Outokumpo (Finland).
Sherritt expands its ammonia plant, constructs two urea production trains (120 and 150 tonnes/day), and expands into the phosphate fertilizer business with a new phosphate plant at the Fort Saskatchewan site, using phosphate rock imported from Florida.
Sherritt develops a coinage business, starting with shipments of nickel blanks from Fort Saskatchewan’s Rolling Mill to the Royal Canadian Mint. Within a decade, the Rolling Mill will be producing coin blanks for multiple countries as well as commemorative medallions. Sherritt conducts its first external technologies project, developing a nickel process for Marinduque Iron Mines (Philippines).
Sherritt buys hydrometallurgical technology patents from Chemical Construction, including those used in the Moa facility then under construction.
Sherritt research division transferred from Ottawa to Fort Saskatchewan; pilot plant equipment was transferred to form the basis of a cobalt refinery. Inland Chemicals builds a 100 t/d sulphuric acid plant to supply the Fort Saskatchewan refinery.
Construction and startup of the nickel refinery including byproduct fertilizer was completed at Fort Saskatchewan.
The ore production from the Lynn Lake mine begins and concentrate is shipped by rail from Manitoba to Alberta.
Construction begins on the refinery at Fort Saskatchewan, AB. The location is chosen due to abundant supplies of water and natural gas, required to make the ammonia for the refinery, and its location on the CNR line.
Sherritt provides partial funding for the Canadian National Railway (CNR) to construct a railway line from Sherridon to Lynn Lake. Sherritt builds a third pilot plant in Ottawa that is operated to finalize the design for a commercial refinery. Closure of the Sherridon mine takes place.
Sherritt builds a second pilot plant, incorporating the hydrogen-reduction process pioneered by Chemical Construction Corp.
Sherritt builds a pilot plant in Ottawa to further develop the ammonia leach process.
UBC discovers a direct ammonia leach method that had the potential to simplify the processing of nickel concentrates.
Sherritt begins to fund the University of British Columbia (UBC) to experiment with hydrometallurgical techniques for ore processing.
First significant discovery of nickel at Lynn Lake, Manitoba.
Sherridon mine production begins shipping copper concentrate to the new Hudson Bay copper smelter.
Sherridon Development Company is formed to provide services and build the Town of Sherridon, Manitoba.
Sherritt Gordon Mines Limited is incorporated to develop resources, principally base metals.