Orica

Orica Limited

Type	Public (ASX: ORI)
Industry	Mining Services
Founded	Australia
Headquarters	Melbourne, Australia
Key people	Peter Duncan (Chairman, Non Exec. Director) Graeme Liebelt (Managing Director, CEO)
Products	Explosives, Chemicals
Revenue	$6.5 billion (2010)
Employees	14,000 (2010)
Subsidiaries	Minova International, Orica Mining Services, Chemicals
Website	www.orica.com

Orica is a multinational corporation that manufactures various chemical products. It is the largest supplier of mining explosives in the world.^{[citation needed]}

History

Initially formed over 130 years ago as Jones, Scott and Co., a supplier of explosives during the Victorian gold rush, the company was bought by Nobel. Nobel later merged with several British chemical manufacturers to form Imperial Chemical Industries, In 1928, Imperial Chemical Industries of Australia and New Zealand (ICIANZ) was incorporated to acquire and coordinate all the Australasian interests of ICI Plc.

In July 1997, ICI Australia became an independent Australasian company after its parent company, ICI Plc, divested its 62.4 per cent shareholding in the company.

As a result of the selldown ICI Australia was required to change its name and on 2 February 1998 became known as Orica.

In 2010, Orica successfully demerged DuluxGroup leaving the company 90 percent focussed on the provision of services to the mining, construction and infrastructure industries.

Current position

Orica now operates three primary businesses:

• The Orica Mining Services division is the global market leader in the supply and servicing of commercial explosives and blasting systems to the mining, quarrying and infrastructure sectors.^[1]
• Orica Chemicals is the leading global supplier of sodium cyanide for use in gold extraction, and Australia and New Zealand's largest supplier and trader of chemical products to mining, water treatment and other industrial markets.
• Minova is the global leading manufacturer and supplier of strata support systems, ventilation, water control and geotechnical solutions to underground mining and tunnelling markets.

Orica's revenue in 2010 was A$6.5 billion, with a market capitalization of about $9.3 billion. The company employs about 14,000 people worldwide. Net profit after tax was $676 million.

The Managing Director and CEO of Orica is Graeme Liebelt, formerly Executive Director & CEO Mining Services division. Former managing director Malcolm Broomhead retired on 31 August 2005 due to health reasons. The board chairman is Peter Duncan, a former Chief Executive Officer of the Shell group of companies in Australia and former director of National Australia Bank Limited (NAB).

Orica House

ICI House

Main article: ICI House

Once Australia's tallest building, the former ICI Building in East Melbourne, now Orica House, was significant as Australia's tallest during the 1950s and was at the forefront of the high-rise boom in Australia's cities in the second half of the Twentieth Century.

It is one of the few post-war office buildings to be found on the Victorian Heritage Register.

Incidents

Tragedy in Coahuila, Mexico

On September 10th, 2007, 28 people were killed and over 250 injured as a result of an accident between a pick-up and a truck which resulted in an explosion. The truck was transporting about 25 metric tons of ammonium nitrate for the company Orica near the cities of Monclova and Cuatro Cienegas. Exact numbers of the dead and injured vary according to source, but Orica's website state there were a total of 28 fatalities in 2007 - one worker and 27 contractors/members of the public.^[2][3][4]

Contamination of the Botany Aquifer, Sydney Australia

Production of chlorinated solvents over many years by ICI has resulted in significant contamination of the Botany Aquifer, a high quality sand aquifer located below the eastern suburbs of Sydney. The main chemical contaminant found in groundwater around the old ICI site is EDC (ethylene di-chloride) a persistent organic molecule and byproduct of the manufacture of PVC. Orica has built a A$167M ^[5] Groundwater Treatment Plant to achieve containment of this contamination and provide high quality industrial water to Botany Industrial Park. Water produced by Orica's groundwater treatment plant saves Sydney's potable water supply around 5 mega litres per day (approx 0.5% of Sydney's water demand).

2011 Leaks

Throughout August and November 2011 Orica had 4 major chemicals or leaks, the first one was a leak of hexavalent chromium from its ammonium nitrate plant near Stockton that effected 70 households, the second one was the release of Arsenic into the Hunter River at Newcastle, the third was of mercury vapours from its Botany site^[6], and the fourth was a leak of ammonia from their site at Kooragang Island.^[7][8] The fourth leak has triggered a public forum and NSW Government investigation into the leaks, and the temporary shut down of the Kooragang Island plant.^[9]

References

1. ^ Hermann Simon mentioned this company in his correspondent Book as an example of a "Hidden Champion" (Simon, Hermann: Hidden Champions of the 21st Century : Success Strategies of unknown World Market Leaders. London: Springer, 2009.- ISBN 978-0-387-98147-5.)
2. ^ Targets & Performance, Orica Limited
3. ^ (English) Dynamite blast on truck kills 23 in Mexico, September 10, 2007, CNN
4. ^ (Spanish) Reportan 37 muertos por explosión en Coahuila, 2007/09/10 - El Universal - Los Estados
5. ^ Groundwater Cleanup Project - Groundwater Treatment Plant (GTP)
6. ^ GERATHY, SARAH (27-09-2011). "AM Tuesday 27th-Sept" (in Australian English). Radio Program / Current Affairs. Australian Broadcasting. http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/news/audio/am/201109/20110928-am-full-program.mp3. Retrieved 29 September 2011. 
7. ^ [1]
8. ^ [2]
9. ^ [3]

External links

• Orica corporate website – source of most material for this article
• Orica Mining Services website
• Google Finance Entry