United Kingdom

Acton, England

Our Acton Refinery is in one of the largest “industrial estates” on the outskirts of London, England. It was built in 1924 together with housing for employees. The area still includes “Canada Road” with several pensioners still in residence.

The refinery originally recovered precious metals from the residue obtained from our nickel refinery at Clydach, Wales. However, over its lifetime, Acton has become one of the world's major refiners of platinum-group metals (PGMs) – platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium and iridium, as well as gold and silver.

Our Communities: Partnering for the Common Good
As part of an industrial estate occupied by many other companies in a number of diverse industries, the Acton Refinery works through an “employers’ forum” called Park Royal Partnership on matters of common concern and interest, such as transport, security, and skills development.

The primary charitable activity of the Partnership is a yearly donation to the voluntary association that provides support to the local hospital, Middlesex General.

The refinery also maintains close links with local universities and colleges providing sponsorship and prizes for technical research and development and facilities improvements. Until 2003, the refinery donated the Inco Prize to the University of Reading to the student gaining the best results in inorganic chemistry. The donation was terminated in 2003 and consideration is being given to suitable options for sponsorship in 2004.

Environmental Stewardship
In recognition of the fact that operating a refinery and chemical plant in the middle of a busy city involves particular environmental challenges, our operation maintains close communications with regulating authorities, the local community and customers on issues relating to the environment.

Acton is also a leader in promoting environmental responsibility. We were one of the first Inco locations to have its environmental management system certified to the ISO14001 international environmental quality standard. The Acton Refinery also plays a significant role in recycling and recovering precious metals. Approximately 60 per cent of the feedstock at Acton comes from secondary sources, such as electronic appliances, special alloys, jewellery scrap and of course a variety of catalysts including automobile catalysts, which are designed to protect the environment.

“We are ambassadors for Inco,” says Adrian Gale, the UK Operations Production Director and General Manager. “We lead from the front in championing improvements to the environment where we live and work.”

A case in point was the action we took in 2002 on finding ways to further reduce mixed nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions from some of our chemical operations even though levels were in compliance with regulations. We put together a team that brought about process changes leading to a 75 per cent reduction in NOx emissions to the air.

Our Employees: Continuous Learning
At Acton, we face significant challenges in recruiting and retaining excellent employees – the key to our success. As a result of our location on the outskirts of London, we compete for labour with other high-tech industries. We also need to ensure that experience and technical knowledge of our older staff members is transferred to our newer employees. To address these challenges, we have introduced an initiative that enables process operatives to participate in a training program leading to assessment of competence measured against National Standards in the chemical industry.