WMC Resources

Infobox Company
company_name=WMC Resources
company_logo=
location=
company_type=Subsidiary of BHP Billiton
foundation=Kalgoorlie, 1933
revenue=245 million AUD profit (2003)
industry=Mining
products=nickel, copper, uranium
num_employees = 4,863 (2005)
homepage=http://www.wmc.com/

WMC Resources Limited was an Australian diversified mining and fertilizer company formerly listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. WMC was an acronym for Western Mining Corporation. It was delisted on 29 June 2005 following a successful takeover by BHP Billiton. It had three main businesses:
* A nickel mining and processing business in Western Australia.
* A copper and uranium mine at Olympic Dam in South Australia. As of 2005, this mine contains 33% of the world's known uranium reserves [http://www.wmc.com/acrobat/china_uranium_conference050418.pdf] .
* A fertilizer production business in Queensland, as well as Hi Fert, a blending and distribution network supporting Australia's eastern states. BHP Billiton sold this business to a joint venture of Elders and AWB on 5 December 2005. [cite press release |url=http://www.hifert.com.au/news/documents/Website%20announcement.pdf |format=PDF |date=2005-12-05 |accessdate=2006-06-20 |title=Hi Fert Change in Ownership |publisher=Hi Fert]
*As of 2004, the company was investigating a new titanium dioxide mineral sands mine ("Corridor Sands Limitada") near Chibuto in Mozambique.

History

The company traced its roots back to 1933 as a gold mining company in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. The company's final corporate structure before takeover was formed in 2003 by a demerger that split off the aluminium operations to form Alumina Limited, separate from what was to be known as WMC Resources (with a separate ASX code of WMR).

In 2003, the company made a profit of 245 million Australian dollars, on assets of approximately 4000 million AUD.

The last Chief Executive Officer of the independent company was Andrew Michelmore, and the board was chaired by Tommie Bergman and Executive Directors included Mr Michelmore and Alan Dundas. A notable previous CEO, from 1990 to 2003, was Hugh Morgan, a politically-vocal CEO who spoke out about the power of trade unions, criticised the Mabo decision and native title more generally, and supported a number of other right-wing causes. Most influentially, Morgan was a member of the "greenhouse mafia," central to the campaign to prevent the Federal Government ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, or taking actions to cut emissions [cite book | last = Hamilton | first = Clive | title = Scorcher: the dirty politics of climate change | year = 2007 | publisher = Black Inc. Agenda | id = ISBN 9780977594900] (in collaboration with Ray Evans, WMC Executive Officer, 1982-2001).

Takeover bids

In December 2004, Xstrata, a Swiss mining company, announced a takeover offer for the company. In February 2005, the WMC board recommended that shareholders reject the offer. The government did not object to the takeover through the Foreign Investment Review Board, however a number of people (including members of the Government) expressed concerns due to the economic (and strategic) importance of the Olympic Dam resources, and the reputation of Xstrata and its major shareholder, Glencore.

The Xstrata takeover offer lapsed after a higher offer was made by BHP Billiton, with support from the WMC Resources board. On the afternoon of 3 June 2005, about 6 hours before the BHP Billiton takeover offer was due to close, it was announced that 55% of the shares had accepted the offer. This automatically (according to Australian Corporations law) extended the offer period by another 14 days to 17 June. BHP Billiton had gained control of the company. On the afternoon of 17 June 2005, BHP Billiton announced that it had achieved 90.5% ownership, and would proceed to compulsory acquire the remaining shares.

As a result of the takeover, most of the board and the CEO resigned, to be replaced by BHP Billiton appointees. BHP Billiton Executive Director Mike Salamon took over the position of Chairman of the board, and Chris Campbell took over as interim CEO. Subsequently, the company name has been replaced by the BHP Billiton corporate identity, and a significant name in Australian mining history ceased to be used.

References

External links

* [http://www.wmc.com WMC Corporate website] - source of much material for this article
* [http://www.uic.com.au/ozuran.htm Australia's Uranium]
* [http://www.xstrata.com/wmc/ Xstrata's WMC takeover page]
* [http://www.bhpbilliton.com/ BHP Billiton's website]