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The Biggest Metal Producing Companies

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Metals have played an important part in industrial growth since the Industrial Revolution began. The Industrial Revolution began in England and then spread to other parts of Europe. In this article we will be studying the metal companies in Europe that continue with the process started by the Industrial Revolution.

The first company is Orsu Metals Corporation, formerly known as European Minerals Corporation. This company is into natural resource exploration and development. Currently, the company is developing a gold mine in Kazakhstan called Varvarinskoye. This company is listed on the Canadian and British stock exchanges.

The company changed its name to Orsu after acquiring the Lero Gold Corporation. The company is also exploring advanced stage gold deposits in the Tien Shan gold belt in Kyrgyzstan and Rudny Altai belt in Kazakhstan.

The second company is Trafigura. This company is based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and has offices in Europe and North America, Central America, South America, as well as in the Middle and Far East.

The company was founded in 1993. It trades in base metals such as iron, nickel, lead and zinc. It also trades in energy, including oil. In 2008, the company had capital of more than $2 billion and turnover of $73 million that generated a profit of $440 million.

Trafigura is the third largest private oil and metals trader after Vitol and Glencore. Trafigura acquired an 8% stake in Norilsk Nickel in December 2010. Trafigura Beheer BV, based in Netherlands, Trafigura AG, based in Lucerne, Switzerland, Trafigura Pte Ltd, Puma Group of Companies and Galena Asset Management are some of Trafigura's major international units.

Claude Dauphin and Eric de Turckheim set up Trafigura. It broke away from a group of companies managed by Marc Rich in 1993. Since its creation, Trafigura has been involved in several scandals.

The first scandal was the Oil for food scandal. The company was accused of buying oil from Iraq in exchange for food when there was a UN embargo on Iraq.

On July 2, 2006, the Probo Koala, a ship leased by Trafigura, carrying toxic waste, entered a port in Amsterdam. The port authorities refused to process the waste because it was too toxic. The ship left port and searched for a place where the waste could be offloaded and finally Abidjan, in the Ivory Coast, agreed to offload and process the waste. Many people fell ill due to exposure to the waste, which resulted in investigations and Trafigura had to do some damage control.

This issue came up again in 2009 when the British newspaper The Guardian reported that it had conclusive evidence that Trafigura had dumped toxic waste in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, through a fake company called Compagnie Tommy. This had resulted in the illness of several people and several deaths.

In 2010, the issue came up again. As a result, in July 2010, Trafigura was convicted in Amsterdam of illegally exporting the toxic waste to Africa and fined one million euros. This issue would haunt Trafigura one more time in 2009.