WMC Resources

The Western Mining Corporation Resources Limited (WMC ), also called short- Western Mining Company, was an Australian mining company, which, when it was taken from the BHP Billiton, the Australian Stock Exchange ( ASX) was entlistet on 29 June 2005.

Geschäftsbeiche

Western Mining Corporation was active in three business areas:

• Reduction of nickel and further processing in Western Australia.
• Mining of copper and uranium mine Olympic Dam in South Australia with the largest known uranium deposits in the world.
• Fertilizer production in Queensland, which was renamed after the acquisition in Southern Cross Fertilisers and Hi Fert. BHP Billiton sold Southern Cross Fertilisers in the Incitec Pivot Limited in May 2006 and Hi Fert entered into a joint venture with Elders Limited and AWB Limited on 5 December 2005, that the deposit of a new mine of titanium oxide and the possibilities of mineral sands operations of Corridor Sands Limitada explored in Chibuto in Mozambique.

History

The roots of Western Mining Company are in gold mining in 1933 in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. Prior to the acquisition by BHP Billion, the company split in 2003 from the Alumina Limited, which is listed as WMC Resources in the ASX.

In 2003, WMC generated a profit of 245 million AUD and the enterprise value was approximately 4 billion AUD.

The last Chief Executive Officer ( CEO) of the company WMC was Andrew Michelmore. The Executive Board and Executive Council was occupied by Tommie Bergman with the Executive Directors including Andrew Michelmore and Alan Dundas. Another CEO from 1990 to 2003 was Hugh Morgan, a politically ambitious CEO, against the power of the unions, against the court's decision Mabo v. Queensland (No. 2 ), and against the Native Title that secure the land rights of Aboriginal people in expressed general and he supported right-wing politics. Strong influence had Morgan as a member of the so-called in Australia " greenhouse mafia, " which led a campaign against the Australian Federal Government to not ratified the Kyoto Protocol and turned against rules to reduce greenhouse gas. This was done in collaboration with Ray Evans, the WMC Executive Officer ( 1982-2001 ).

Takeover

In December 2004, Xstrata announced a company from Switzerland that they have the WMC presented a takeover bid. In February 2005, the board of WMC announced that shareholders had rejected this bid. The government opposed the takeover by a foreign company, but a number of personalities were in favor - including members of the government that focus on the economic and strategic importance of the natural resources of copper and uranium to the mine Olympic Dam and on the reputation of Xstrata and its major shareholder Glencore related.

The takeover bid by Xstrata Billiton was surpassed by the BHP and supported by the board of WMC Resources. On the afternoon of June 3, 2005, six hours before the delivery end of a takeover bid by BHP Billiton, it was announced that 55 per cent of shareholders had accepted the offer. This meant that according to the Australian Corporations Law entered a 14-day extension of time until June 17. BHP Billiton now intended to take over the entire company and announced on 17 June 2005 that 90.5 percent of the shares in WMC itself were in their possession and that they would also take over the remaining free float.

One result of the takeover was that most members of the Executive Board and the CEOs of WMC resigned and were replaced by people appointed by BHP Billiton. BHP Billiton executive director Mike Salamon took over the chairmanship of the Board and Chris Campbell was appointed temporary CEO. The old company name was replaced by BHP Billiton and a major name of the history of the mining companies of Australia disappeared.