Page 26 its it is primarily known for its nickel production Xstrata Nickel already has over 1300 permanent employees The mer ger of commodities trading giant Glencore International plc and Xstrata plc to form Glencore Xstrata plc took place May 2 2013 Xstra ta based in Zug Switzerland was formed in 2002 when it bought Glen core s coal assets Contd from pg 24 This diversifed natural resource company is a major producer and marketer of more than 90 commodi ties Its presence at each stage of the commodities chain provides it with superior market insight and access to multiple opportunities It has a strong footprint in both es tablished and emer ging sectors in the feld of natural resources Its di versifed operations compri se over 150 mining and metallur gical sites of fshore oil production assets farms and agricultural facilities It employs approximately 190000 people Its products include copper zinc nickel alumin um ferroallo ys iron ore coal oil and agricultur al prod ucts Xstrata Nickel s Sudbury operations consist of under ground mine s a mill and a smelter The company has been mining nickelcopper ores in the Sudbury area of Northern Ontario since 1929 The facilities are spread throughout the 60 kilometrelong ovalshaped geological formation known as the Sudbury Basin Xstrata has two under ground nickelcopper mines in Sudbury Nickel Rim South and Fraser The Nickel Rim South Mine is currently Sudbury s lar gest mining operation Although nickel and copper are the primary metals cobalt and precious metals such as gold silver platinum and palladium are also produced The company s Strathcona concentra tor mill receives ore from the two mines as well as thirdparty custom feed ores and produces two con centrate streams a nickelcopper concentrate that goes to its Sudbury Smelter for smelting and a copper concentrate that goes to Xstrata Cop per for smelting and refning The mill has a maximum capacity of approxi mately 275 million tonnes of ore per year The Sudbury Smelter currently smelts Xstrata nickelcopper concentrate from Sudbury Raglan and XNA Australia operations and processes custom feed materials in the form of concentrates and secondary products It is capable of producing 95000 tonnes of nickel copper and cobalt in matt e annually The smelted and granulated matte is sent by rail to lar ge port facilities in Quebec City and then shipped overseas to Nik kelverk in Norway for refning into pure metals Merger cr eates str onger Xstrata