Product details

After paying $4.3 billion in 1996, for one of the world''s largest deposits of high-grade, low-cost nickel at Voisey''s Bay, in Labrador, Canada, by 1998 Inco Ltd projected it would not be able to mine any ore until at least 2001. During this period Inco management saw its share price fall from nearly $55 to close to $15. Faced with decreased demand from its main customers in Asia, an oversupply of nickel due to a Russian competitor desperate for hard currency, and legal squabbles with the Newfoundland government, Inco needs to decide what it should do with this huge, non-performing asset. Can it afford to sit on the investment and wait out the crisis, or should it be proactive and force a solution. The case considers the role of the Board of Directors, multinational oligopolistic market structures, business-government relations and the environment of a global commodity market.