Engaging Our Stakeholders

Our Investors

EARNING THE TRUST OF OUR INVESTORS

VBNC's Mine Manager Heather White, briefs a group of 46 members of the investment community who toured the Voisey's Bay mine site, concentrator and port in August 2004.

Click for a larger view

"It was a hugely valuable experience," says Greg Barnes, Mining Analyst at Canaccord Capital Corp. "It allowed us to get a first-hand look at what the company is doing and, as importantly, how it's doing. It made the project more tangible and put it in a clearer light."

Barnes is referring to a trip Inco organized to our Voisey's Bay mine and concentrator site in August 2004 for 46 members of the investment community. Participants included sell side and buy side analysts and portfolio managers from across North America and the United Kingdom. This group included attendees from institutional investors holding in total 60 million Inco shares, or just over 30 per cent of the outstanding shares of the company.

Beginning in Toronto, the travellers were flown to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador, where they transferred to two smaller chartered planes for the flight to Voisey's Bay in northern Labrador. "Happily, the weather cooperated," recalls Sandra Scott, Inco's Director of Investor Relations. "Under blue skies, we took our visitors on a tour of the mine site, concentrator and port."

During the five-hour visit, this group also had an opportunity to hear from and ask questions of Inco executives, including Peter Jones, Inco's President and Chief Operating Officer, and Phil du Toit, Managing Director at Voisey's Bay Nickel Company Limited. As well, they met with local aboriginal leaders, Labrador Inuit Association President William Andersen III and then-Innu Nation President Peter Penashue. William Andersen told this group, "I'm looking forward to this opportunity for our youth." Peter Penashue added, "This project has given our young people a future and possibly one of the best aboriginal training programs in the country."

In 2004, Inco Limited received the Investor Relations Magazine award for "Best Use of Conferencing" for the third consecutive year. Above, Rob Buchanan of the Inco Investor Relations department accepts the award in Toronto.

Click for a larger view

Like Barnes, Sandra Scott believes such trips are invaluable. "In this post-Bre-X age, people want to kick the tires to fulfill fiduciary obligations," she says. "Words in reports are brought to life by people seeing the asset and meeting the team."