Author Topic: The Wolves of London  (Read 3866 times)

Doug

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The Wolves of London
« on: May 09, 2006, 03:37:01 AM »
Big shake ups lately I guess most of you haven't taken much notice of....

With metal and oil prices in orbit and few new discoveries the all the big companies are trying to fatten up on the little ones.

Here's my story....

I work for Inco, formerly the International Nickel company, created in the merger of the International Nickel and the Mond Nickel, Prior to that International Nickel created by the merger of the Canadian Copper Company and the Orford Copper company.

Inco who's trying to merge with Falcon bridge, who was bought our by Noranda but the name Falconbridge was more respectable so the big company kept the little companies name. Nornada was owned by Brass can and tried to spin off Falco to Minmetals but the Chinese wouldn't cough up the cash so Brasscan sold their stock to Extrata who are bitter about geting scooped by BHB&P who foiled there hostile take over of WMC.
Now Extrata owns 20% of Falco wich is actauly the combined entity of Falco/Noranda and they're scared of creaping take over by the Swiss controlled (Glencore) company.
Falco's white night is old rival Inco imbittered by no longer being the worlds largest nickel company since Norislk Nickel was spun off and went private after the fall of the Soviet Union. But there's a probelm this new Inco scares the EU and US defence Industry because it would control too much nickel and the extended mating dance and regulatory hurdles have kept the newly weds apart too long and Swiss are still waiting to cut in.
Then the previously rebuffed Zinc producer Teck Cominco slides in with a hostile offer for Inco only if they walk away from Falco with rumours of a possible 3 way merger if needed to bring the deal home.

Sounds like a soap opera!!!!
And meanwhile in London the wolves Rio Tinto, BHB&P and Anglo American quietly sit licking their chops waiting for the spoils or I may work for Falco-Inco-TeckCominco next????

Doug
The hall is booked, the band is playing and its time see who can dance........

GuyFawkes

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Re: The Wolves of London
« Reply #1 on: May 09, 2006, 03:47:21 AM »
Same in every market, when the market itself has gotten as big as it will ever go, all that is left is mergers and asset stripping.

already happening big time in the auto industry here, but badge engineering is still hiding a lot of it.

if you're into minerals and mining keep an eye on the australian yellowcake mining market, boom times there..
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Doug

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Re: The Wolves of London
« Reply #2 on: May 09, 2006, 04:20:17 AM »
Ya that Olympic damb deal was one hell of a scoop for BHB&B. Some say that one mine will holds 30% of the worlds reserves of Uranium. Trouble is that mine is a basket case, thats why they're trying to get aproval to dig a pit. Not to say its not an impressive mine, its the largest kopie hoist I've ever seen with 30 ton skips. They just need to get the bottle necks out.
There's a lot of money to be made in Auz, no doubt.....

Doug 

GuyFawkes

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Re: The Wolves of London
« Reply #3 on: May 09, 2006, 11:33:30 AM »
In (what was then) zambia in 1970
the maamba open cast colliery (I typed "wankie" first, but that was over the border in rhodesia, not open cast, 200 men died there in one accident)
http://maps.google.com/?ll=-17.34261,27.183952&spn=0.038425,0.058537&t=k&om=0

coal use to go by road 70+ miles in double trailer diamond t and old mercs, between the twisty roads and chibuku (beer) stands every couple of miles the carnage was incredible.

if you look at the map you can see a squiggly line going off at aboyt 10.30, that's the old dirt road to choma and the rail head, an alcoholic scotsman named jack lydon did the final stages of what was called the "ropeway", from memory they were 25 ton buckets, he did the cable splicing (under tension, seamless splices, incredible) , it was at the time the longest cablecar system on earth, at about 70 miles.

the pit itself had an RB (32?) electric walking dragline, big bitch, you could see it clearly from 20 miles away on the escarpment, the pit itself was a hellhole, 140 degrees and constant sulphur fires, and everything being either black or coated in black was too hot to touch in the sun.

the RB32 was of course electric, and it had a semi mobile power shed that had to be moved now and again, and services more than that or have breakers reset, it used to kill about one black a week, because they flatly refused to open the door and then throw a piece of pipe in before walking in themselves, huge static charges and of course the real power would easy follow an arc made by static

here a (different) dragline pic if others havent seen em before... the bucket is about the same size as a euclid, park two double deckers side by side in the bucket
« Last Edit: May 09, 2006, 11:51:43 AM by GuyFawkes »
--
Original Lister CS 6/1 Start-o-matic 2.5 Kw (radiator conversion)
3Kw 130 VDC Dynamo to be added. (compressor + hyd pump)
Original Lister D, megasquirt multifuel project, compressor and truck alternator.
Current status - project / standby, Fuel, good old pump diesel.

hotater

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Re: The Wolves of London
« Reply #4 on: May 09, 2006, 03:56:31 PM »
Mining operations are where the common folks see what *can* be done if the rewards are rich enough.   Freeport-Mac's Grasberg Project in Iwinjawa, Indonesia (sp?) is a good example.

  Just to the south of me in Nevada the heap-leach gold operations move and process as much as five tons of ore for an ounce of gold.....and make over 4,000 combined ounces a day at only two of the bigger mines, Newmont and Barrick, near Carlin.

I was playing golf with a metalurgist at the SanteFe Rabbit Creek mine in Elko once and ask him about the refining process.  He said they did better than the alchemist of old with their lead to gold schemes.  He said, " We make gold out of dirt!".  It looks to be so, too.

I used to work for a company that made wear liner packages and parts for the big shovels, draglines, and haul trucks from alloy steels and chomium carbide overlay materials.
7200 hrs on 6-1/5Kw, FuKing Listeroid,
Currently running PS-Kit 6-1/5Kw...and some MPs and Chanfas and diesel snowplows and trucks and stuff.

Doug

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Re: The Wolves of London
« Reply #5 on: May 09, 2006, 06:15:11 PM »
Still.....
Look at the money wasted in all this buy merger mania.
This hasn't open a single orebody just concentrated the resources in fewer hands. Some mergers make sence, WMC was probably too small to ever get full potential from Olympic damb. Inco-Falco makes sence because of the three large mine/refineries in Nother Ontario not too mention the ore that can be recovered at the bounderies between mine ( I used to be able hit the Strathcona head frame with a rock thrown from the Coleman head frame ).
But what the hello does Tech think they have to offer?

Doug

hotater

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Re: The Wolves of London
« Reply #6 on: May 10, 2006, 02:56:04 AM »
Doug---

Its' the business of *business* not *mining*. 

 They only have to produce real metals to make the take-overs more attractive.

 I used to read the Western Mining Jornal out of Boulder, CO every week when the mines were my customers.  Through golf and steaks and such with the higher management I overheard many conversations that *seemed* to be more of 'asset management' than 'production of metals'.  Take-overs, mergers and joint ventures are designed to move finacial profits and losses around in a constant orbit of tax liabilities and income potential and shareholder equity that somehow balances out just enough to pay the overhead and be bought out eventually and start a retirement account with yet another company.
    They depend on people like you to produce the goods while they produce wealth for a whole bunch of people and governments that invest in one way or another from the mine and it's ore.
7200 hrs on 6-1/5Kw, FuKing Listeroid,
Currently running PS-Kit 6-1/5Kw...and some MPs and Chanfas and diesel snowplows and trucks and stuff.

Doug

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Re: The Wolves of London
« Reply #7 on: May 10, 2006, 06:40:46 PM »
I think they just have more money than balls and have little interest in solving the shortage problem but rather in being the number 1.


Doug