Natural Resources

Barrick Gold Corporation is the largest pure gold mining company in the world, with its headquarters in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and four regional business units (RBU's) located in Australia, Africa, North America and South America. Barrick is currently undertaking mining and exploration projects in Papua New Guinea, the United States, Canada, Australia, Peru, Chile, Russia, South Africa, Argentina and Tanzania. On January 20, 2006, Barrick acquired a majority share of Placer Dome.

De Beers is the world's largest supplier and marketer of diamonds -- effectively only a semi-precious stone since the opening of the diamond mines in southern Africa in the late nineteenth century. They employ sophisticated advertising strategies to create demand for a product with little or no intrinsic value or worth, which cannot easily be resold by the consumer.

Syncrude Canada Ltd. is the world's largest producer of synthetic crude oil and the largest single source producer in Canada. It is located just outside Fort McMurray in the Athabasca Oil Sands, and supplies about 13% of Canada's oil requirements. The company is The company's air releases in 2005 were 129,741,321 Kg and it shipped approximately 95 million barrels of oil 2006.

Established in 1911, Nippon Suisan Kaisha, Ltd. (Nissui) is a commercial fishing and marine product procurement operation. It's goal is to "Establish a global supply chain of marine products." The company is the second-largest of its kind in Japan and owns Gorton's, a US frozen seafood company.

Aluminum Corporation of China Limited (Chalco) has masterminded its way into mixing alumina and aluminum. Chalco is the only maker of alumina -- which is refined from bauxite and a key material in producing aluminum -- in China. The company produces about 9 million tons of alumina products (including alumina, alumina hydrate and alumina chemicals), which makes it the second-largest maker of alumina in the world. Chalco also produces a million tons of primary aluminum annually. In 2007 the company agreed to acquire sister company Baotou Aluminum for about $2 billion.

CSAV, Compañía Sud Americana de Vapores, is a Chilean shipping company that is currently the largest in Latin America. CSAV, one of the oldest shipping companies in the world, was founded in 1872. The company’s business initially consisted exclusively of coastal shipping services but these were rapidly extended along the whole west coast of South America to the Panama Canal before this was opened to regular traffic.

One of the largest private economic conglomerates in Brazil, the Votorantim Group has large positions in cement and concrete, mining and metals (aluminum, zinc, nickel and steel), as well as paper and pulp production. Described by the Wall Street Journal as "a tropical style General Electric," Votorantim also produces concentrated orange juice and specialty chemicals, and is involved in a number of electric generation projects (often to service its own industrial operations). Its financial arm is Banco Votorantim.

Vale (known until 2007 as Companhia Vale do Rio Doce) is a diversified mining multinational corporation and one the largest logistics operators in Brazil. In addition to being the second-largest mining company in the world, Vale is also the largest producer of iron ore, pellets, and nickel. Vale is also a world-class producer of manganese, ferroalloys, copper, bauxite, potash, kaolin, alumina and aluminum. In the electric energy sector, the company participates in consortia and currently operates nine hydroelectric plants.

Tenaris [TS: NYSE, Buenos Aires, Mexico and TEN: MTA Italy] is a company that is a global manufacturer and supplier of seamless and welded steel pipe products and provider of pipe handling, stocking and distribution services to the oil and gas, energy and mechanical industries. It is also a leading regional supplier of welded steel pipes for gas pipelines in South America.

OAO Rosneft Oil Company is an integrated petroleum company owned by the Russian Government. Rosneft is headquartered in Moscow’s Balchug district near the Kremlin, across the Moskva river. Rosneft became Russia's leading extraction and refinement company after purchasing assets of former oil giant Yukos at state-run auctions that took place following the 2003 arrest and subsequent imprisonment of former owner, Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, on fraud and tax evasion charges.