Timminco: How Eric Sprott got solar burn As the coach pulled up outside an unexceptional-looking industrial building, anticipation mounted. This was the place where Timminco Ltd., until recently a little-known producer of low-grade industrial metals, said it had solved the solar industry’s supply problem. Here, in Bcancour, it had developed a proprietary process to produce solar-grade silicon much more cheaply than anyone else. That promise had propelled Timminco shares from less than 30 cents to more than $22 by the end of 2007, earning it plaudits as the top-performing stock on the Toronto Stock Exchange that year. The company’s market value would soon surpass $3.5-billion.
The passengers peered out the bus window in intent anticipation of what was bound to be the highlight of the company-run tour.
Rupert Merer, an analyst at National Bank Financial, recalls what happened next.
“They opened up some of the [plant] doors while we were sitting in the vehicle, so we could see the equipment through the doors. They did have one of the furnaces working, so you could see the glow of the flames inside the furnace. But that was as close as we got,” he says.
So the bus doors never opened?
“That’s right. We weren’t allowed off the bus.”
coutesy globe an mail
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