Sudbury will become Vale Inco's centre of operations in Canada and the United Kingdom in a restructuring move that also resulted in cutting 140 white collar positions worldwide, including 54 in Sudbury.

The elimination of regional presidents means management decisions will be made in Sudbury, rather than in each region. Three newly appointed Sudbury-based vice-presidents will be in charge of their areas of operations throughout Canada and Great Britain.

Cory McPhee, director of corporate public affairs at the company, says the management changes are about improving efficiency by basing the company's structure on function – not geography.

“Rather than look at a very decentralized, silo approach of having separate (nickel) operations in Thompson, Sudbury, St. John's (Voisey's Bay) ... we're looking at having more integrated Canadian and U.K. operations that looks at the entire flow sheet as a single mining, milling, smelting and refining unit,” says McPhee.

The 140 immediate company-wide layoffs are a further result of the restructuring. They are all from managerial positions.

“We recognize that these actions are difficult, but we hope they provide some sense of certainty to our staff family that has been anticipating further actions,” states Vale Inco president and CEO Tito Martins in a release to industry partners, July 9.

The managerial restructuring has been ongoing for the past eight months, with this latest announcement being a “culmination of all of those efforts,” says McPhee.

“I think it just allows us to leverage a lot of things that will make the business more efficient – economies of scale, optimize a lot of assets, processing capacity.”

McPhee says expertise in Sudbury will now apply to all Canadian and British operations.

The three vice-presidents who have been appointed for the new positions to oversee Canadian and U.K. operations are Mike MacFarlane, mining and milling; Steve Wood, smelting and refining and John Pollesel will add production services and support to his regular duties as president of Ontario operations.

“Sudbury will be the hub for all of our operating expertise,” says McPhee.

Supporting these roles, Lovro Paulic will assume general management responsibilities for Manitoba and Tom Paddon will assume general management responsibilities for Newfoundland and Labrador. Brian Maynard, the current president of the Manitoba operations, has been offered a role in the broader Vale organization.