Vale’s management structure in Canada continues to change with the company recently announcing that Alistair Ross will step down as the director of North Atlantic mining operations by the end of the month when his contract expires.
According to a Dec. 11 Vale memo, Mike McCann, who has worked for the Brazilian mining giant in Sudbury for the last six years, will replace Ross Jan 1.
“Mike has done a superb job leading processing operations across the North Atlantic and Asia, delivering value projects and achieving production and safety improvements in a number of areas across our business,” said Ricus Grimbeek, chief operating officer for Vale Base Metals, in that memo. “I have every confidence that Mike will continue his track record of success leading our mining and milling operations.”
This move is the latest change to Vale’s Thompson management, which began back in July when Manitoba Operations vice-president Mark Scott’s position was eliminated.
Ross was given the responsibility of overseeing Vale’s Canadian operations in Manitoba, Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador at that time.
Vale’s smelter and refinery in Thompson shut down for good in the summer, resulting in around 127 jobs cuts in late July and another upcoming 24 layoffs by the end of the month.
Ross, who was based in Sudbury, met with city officials in Thompson and spoke at an Oct. 3 Chamber of Commerce meeting to explain how the growing demand for battery-powered vehicles could be the key to increased prices for nickel in the future. Later that day, he took part in the Vale Manitoba Operations open house, which was the last day that the company offered tours of the inactive smelter and refinery.
Ross had come out of semi-retirement two years ago on a contract to lead mining across Vale’s Ontario Operations before taking on responsibility for the company’s other Canadian mining operations.
Grimbeek said that Ross’s knowledge, experience and leadership skills have been invaluable during his five-month stint as the head of their North Atlantic mining operations.
“In that role [he] has delivered breakthrough thinking to lead the required transformation to achieve new levels of safety and performance in our Canadian mines.”
Grimbeek’s memo also announced that Gary Annett, who recently assumed a temporary on-the-ground management position in Thompson, will take on a new role leading the North Atlantic Mining and Milling Node across Canada and will be replaced sometime in 2019.
The past several months have seen Vale increasingly favour an absentee management style for Manitoba Operations, which are now overseen from Sudbury. Ryan Land took a new role based mostly in Sudbury back in September after spending the previous seven years in Thompson overseeing corporate affairs and organizational development at Vale’s Manitoba Operations.
Even though they’ve maintained good relationships with Vale throughout this transitional period, United Steelworkers Local 6166 president Warren Luky said this continued management restructuring makes it difficult for the union to negotiate on behalf of its members.
“Even though we fought, we had good relationships and understood were we stood” when Manitoba Operations were managed locally, he said. “A lot of that management team has since retired.”
