Vale announced a new general manager for its Manitoba Operations May 17.
Gary Annett is taking over the role vacated when Franco Cazzola left the company after a little more than a year in the position April 27.
Cazzola, who was previously the manager of the Copper Cliff Mine and the Copper Cliff nickel refinery in Sudbury, was announced in early February 2020 as the replacement for Gary Eyres, who had been in charge of Manitoba Operations since March 2019. Prior to Eyres, Alistair Ross and Mike McCann were the Manitoba Operations heads following Scott leaving the company in July 2018. Annett also did a three-month stint as the manger of Thompson mines following the retirement of Warren Brass in the fall of 2018, coming from a role as general manager of the company’s Garson Mine in Sudbury.
“Gary, who led our Thompson operations in 2018, has over 20 years of experience with Vale, managing underground and open pit mines across our Canadian portfolio,” said Tara Ritchie of Vale Manitoba Operations corporate and Indigenous affairs in an email. “We look forward to Gary’s leadership and commitment to delivering safe production and welcome him back to our Thompson team.”
The company also announced to employees that Stacy Kennedy, who served as interim general manager since Cazzola’s departure, has been named the health, safety and risk manager for Thompson.
“Stacy has a wealth of operational and leadership experience, having been part of the Thompson team for nearly 14 years,” said Ritchie.
Kennedy was previously the interim manager of Thompson mines from early 2019 until Eyres became the head of Manitoba Operations in March of that year. She has worked for Manitoba Operations since 2007 in various roles including Birchtree Mine and T1 chief geologist.
Kennedy fills a role left vacant by the departure of three other members of the management team, including one who had worked for the company for more than 30 years, at the same time that Cazzola left.
The change at the top comes in the last year of Vale’s current grant-in-lieu of property taxes agreement with the City of Thompson, which has been in place since 2018. Over that time, the amount Vale pays has dropped from $4.8 million to $3 million to this year. In the previous agreement before that, Vale gave the city $6 million a year.
“Vale is committed to the communities in which we operate and is confident that we will continue to see success and new milestones, in terms of safety, productivity and innovation in Thompson,” said Ritchie.
