LITERATURE REVIEW SPECIAL — Inco names Gendron president of VBN

Nickel giant Inco (N-T) has announced that longtime Inco executive A.S.

Gendron has been appointed president of Voisey’s Bay Nickel Co. (VBN), a subsidiary.

Gendron will lead a new team to develop the Voisey’s Bay

nickel-copper-cobalt deposit and related processing facilities in Newfoundland and Labrador, an Inco release stated.

VBN became a wholly owned subsidiary of Inco in mid-August, when Inco’s acquisition of Diamond Fields Resources was made final. Gendron will be based at VBN’s offices in St. John’s, and will report directly to Inco Chairman Michael Sopko.

Gendron, 53, joined Inco in 1971 after graduating in chemical engineering from Royal Military College in Kingston, Ont., and from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a doctorate in chemical engineering. He has held positions in research and operations at Inco facilities in Ontario and Guatemala. For the past year, he has been vice-president of milling, smelting and refining at Inco’s Copper Cliff complex near Sudbury.

Gendron said of his appointment, “In the mining business, it is a rare and unique opportunity when one can develop a complete infrastructure — mine, mill, smelter and refinery — when nothing was there before. Voisey’s Bay is such a project.”

Inco is awaiting a feasibility study on development of the Labrador mine site (initially to include an open pit) and on the location and size of a smelter.

When in full operation, Voisey’s Bay is expected to produce 270 million lb.

nickel and 200 million lb. copper annually. Cobalt production will be determined by the type of smelting process chosen. By comparison, Inco’s 12 operating mines in the Sudbury district produced 234 million lb. nickel and 220 million lb. copper in 1995.