Company Profile

Founded in 1927, with operations in Canada and Cuba, Sherritt International Corporation (Sherritt) is a world leader in the mining and hydrometallurgical refining of nickel and cobalt from lateritic ore. Sherritt operates with a focused goal of being a preferred supplier of low-cost nickel, while creating sustainable prosperity for our employees, investors and communities.

Sherritt takes an enterprise-wide approach to managing sustainability, which includes an integrated system with a series of sustainability policies and standards. Our Environment, Health, Safety and Sustainability Policy articulates our overarching commitments and expectations for our employees, contractors and suppliers. Given the differences between the operating environments in Canada and Cuba, each of our divisions has some flexibility in the way they implement these standards at their operating sites. Site-specific requirements in the standards reflect our experience, our risk profile and industry best practice.

For several years, Sherritt has been a participating member of the Mining Association of Canada (MAC) and we are actively implementing the requirements of MAC’s Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) protocols. These protocols inform several of our policies, operating procedures and sustainability priorities. While Sherritt is actively implementing the TSM protocols at each of our operations, disclosure of our TSM performance is currently focused on our Canadian operations, namely the Fort Saskatchewan Refinery.

To learn more, please visit: www.sherritt.com 

Fort Saskatchewan Refinery

The Moa Joint Venture (the Moa JV) is a vertically integrated enterprise, which mines and refines nickel from lateritic sources. Located in Moa (Cuba) and Fort Saskatchewan (Alberta, Canada), the Moa JV produces class I nickel and high-grade cobalt products. The Moa JV is 50% owned by each of Sherritt and General Nickel Company S.A. of Cuba, and has a proud history stretching back more than 25 years.

Moa uses an open-pit mining process to mine lateritic ore, which is processed using high-pressure acid leaching on-site into mixed sulphides containing nickel and cobalt. The mixed sulphides are then transported to Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, where they are refined into high-quality finished nickel and cobalt as well as a byproduct ammonium sulphate fertilizer.

The metals refinery in Fort Saskatchewan also known as the Cobalt Refinery Company Inc. (COREFCO) is ISO 9001:2015 certified, with an annual production capacity of approximately 35,000 (100% basis) tonnes of nickel and approximately 3,800 (100% basis) tonnes of cobalt. In addition, Sherritt also has wholly-owned ammonia, ammonium sulphate fertilizer, sulphuric acid and utilities operations as part of its Fort Saskatchewan operations.

Altogether, the Fort Saskatchewan facilities employ about 750 people, many with more than 20 years of service.

As the first major investor in the city more than 60 years ago, Sherritt has been an active and supportive development partner in the city of Fort Saskatchewan for decades, contributing to many public, health, cultural and educational facilities and institutions.

The Fort Saskatchewan site does not have a tailings storage facility and therefore does not apply the TSM Tailings Management Protocol.