Aerial Seeding: Distributing plant seeds by aircraft or helicopter on lands where plant growth is wanted. This method is especially useful for large areas or for rough terrain.

Air dispersion modelling: A computer tool used to predict the concentration of substances released from industrial facilities to locations outside the facility. The results are used to identify areas of potential impact from air emissions. Design changes such as stack height, emission control and other management controls can be entered into the model to see how the dispersion pattern is affected.

Bio-available: The degree to which a living organism can absorb a substance. For example, people can absorb iron from meat but cannot absorb iron from rust. The iron in the meat is bio-available while the iron in the rust is not.

Biodiversity: The variety of plant and animal life in the world or in a particular habitat.

Catalyst: A substance that accelerates a reaction and that is recovered substantially unchanged at the end of a reaction.

Closure plan: An environmental plan covering the closure of a mining operation.

Concentrate: The desired mineral that is left after impurities have been removed from mined ore. The ore is concentrated by crushing, milling and processing so that most of the desired substance (in this case nickel) in the ore is recovered.

Disabling Injury: An injury where an employee does not return to work or does not perform their regular duties during the next regularly scheduled shift. Disabling injuries include Lost Time injuries and Modified Work injuries where the medical restrictions prevent the employee from doing their normal job on their next regularly scheduled shift, or subsequent regularly scheduled shifts.

Disabling Injury Frequency (DIF): The number of injuries that occurred for the reporting period, divided by the total number of hours worked during the reporting period, multiplied by 200,000 hours to standardize for 100 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees; FTE employees are said to work 40 hours per week for 50 weeks per year, or 2,000 hours per year.

Effluent: Wastewater either treated or untreated, that flows out of a treatment plant, sewer or industrial outfall. Generally refers to wastes discharged into surface waters.

Electrocobalt: High-purity cobalt metal produced using an Inco-developed electrolytic refining process.

Electrostatic precipitator: An emission control device that utilizes electrical charge to remove dust from a waste gas flow.

Emission: Residue material released into the atmosphere.

Environmental assessment: The systematic process by which it is determined whether a particular property is or may be subject to contamination.

Exceedence: a value that is higher than government regulated limits and/or corporate targets.

Filter cake: The layer of solids that is retained on the surface of a filter.

Fluid bed roaster: A furnace in which ground ore concentrate is roasted to reduce sulphur emissions. The roasting produces sulphur gases, which can be collected and concentrated to produce sulphuric acid instead of being released as emissions.

Fugitive emissions: Fugitive emissions are air emissions, other than those emitted from an exhaust stack, as a direct result of operation of a facility. Fugitive emissions are also defined as emissions into the air resulting from human and natural activities and that are emitted into the air without first passing through a stack or duct designed to control flow, including, but not limited to, emissions caused by movement of soil, vehicles, equipment and wind blown dust.

Greenhouse gas (GHG): A gas that allows light from the sun to heat the earth, but prevents loss of the heat from the atmosphere into space.

Hazard: A source or situation with a potential for harm in terms of human injury or ill health, damage to property, damage to the environment, or a combination of these.

Hectare: A measure of surface area equal to 10,000 square metres (equivalent to 2.47 acres).

Hydrometallurgical processing facility: A facility in which the industrial process that uses chemicals to extract metals from minerals is located.

Hydrometallurgy: An industrial process that uses chemicals to extract metals from minerals.

Inco-wide: Inco's wholly-owned and joint venture facilities in which Inco has an interest of 50 per cent or greater.

Indigenous species: Native grasses, legumes and native flowers. These species are adapted to local climate conditions, provide erosion control, help establish soil organisms and enhance organic matter in soil. PT Inco's nursery in Indonesia is used to propagate several of the native species used at PT Inco.

Integrated facilities: Inco processing facilities with capabilities to extract ores from the ground and process that ore to finished product.

Intensity: The ratio of a quantity of energy or material needed or produced per unit of production.

Joule: A unit of energy equivalent to the force that one Newton exerts acting through one metre. One terajoule (TJ) is equivalent to 1 x 10¹² joules.

Kiln: A large furnace for roasting ore concentrate.

Laterite ore: A reddish clay mineral that contains a concentration of nickel oxide minerals and from which the silica has been naturally leached.

Nickel and its compounds: Nickel is a metal resistant to chemical and atmospheric corrosion. It is commonly used in stainless steel, coins, batteries, fuel cells, textile dyes, catalysts, permanent magnets and in applications which require resistance to corrosion.

Non-ferrous metals: Metals with little or no iron content.

Overburden: Layers of soil and rock covering an ore seam. Overburden is removed prior to surface mining and replaced after the ore is taken from the seam.

Ore: A metal-bearing mineral valuable enough to be mined.

Particulate: Finely divided solid or liquid particles in gaseous emissions from various areas of a mining, smelting, concentrating or refining operation, including chemical droplets, dust mists, fogs, fumes and smoke.

pH: An expression of acidity or alkalinity on a logarithmic scale on which 7 is neutral, lower values are more acid and higher values are more alkaline.

Pilot plant: A small-scale facility used to test the technical and economic feasibility of new processes and technologies prior to construction of a full-scale facility.

Platinum-group metals: A family of six metal elements with similar physical and chemical properties. The metals are ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium and platinum.

Plating: A thin coating of metal on another metal.

Reclamation: Restoring mined areas to usefulness.

Precious metal: Metal elements prized for their high value and durable quality. Gold and silver are the best known precious metals. The platinum group (see glossary entry) are also considered precious metals.

Refining: The nickel matte produced from the smelter further processed to make a marketable product. Refining may include heating, leaching to dissolve valuable metals such as nickel, copper and cobalt but leave iron residue, settling, stripping with solvents or reduction to separate unwanted material from the desired metals.

Remediation: Cleanup or other methods used to remove or contain a toxic spill or hazardous materials from a contaminated site.

Retention pond: A pond used to store effluents to provide time for solids to settle or prior to sending for treatment before release to natural water bodies.

Risk: The combination of the probability and the consequences of a hazardous event occurring.

Slag: The waste product of the process of smelting.

Sludge: Precipitated solid matter produced by metallurgical processes.

Smelting: Dry ore concentrate is processed in a furnace where the mixture reacts to separate nickel matte, which sinks to the bottom and the remaining material slag, which floats to the top. The matte needs further refining to make pure nickel.

Step change: A change that happens over a very short period of time and which makes a significant difference to the size or value of something or the way in which something is done. Step change is different from incremental change, which occurs gradually over an extended period of time.

Sulphur, sulphur dioxide, sulphur trioxide: Sulphur is an abundant tasteless odourless multivalent nonmetallic element; best known in yellow crystals. It occurs in many sulphide and sulphate minerals and even in native form (especially in volcanic regions). Sulphur dioxide is a by-product of ore processing. It reacts on the surface of a variety of airborne solid particles called aerosols, is soluble in water and can be oxidized within airborne water droplets, producing sulphuric acid. This acidic pollution can be transported by wind over many hundreds of kilometres, and is deposited as acid rain. It is a constituent of smog. Sulphur trioxide is highly toxic and a strong irritant. It is formed by the oxidation of sulphur dioxide and may be released in exhaust stacks of sulphuric acid manufacturing processes.

Suspended matter: Very small particles more or less uniformly dispersed in liquid such as water.

Tailings: The residue from ore processing that usually has the consistency of sand.

Toxicity: A measure of the ability of a particular chemical or effluent to cause death or impairment to an animal or plant. There are many toxicity tests in use for different organisms.

Waste rock: Rock or mineral which must be removed from a mine that has no commercial value.