British Newfoundland Development Corporation

BRINCO Limited was incorporated in 1953 as the British Newfoundland Development Corporation mainly by a consortium of British firms. BRINCO was initially the idea in 1952 of J.R. Smallwood, Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador at the time. In 1952 Smallwood, in an effort to bring industrial development to Newfoundland and Labrador, went to England and offered large tracts of undeveloped land in Labrador and Newfoundland to any group of British companies that would undertake to develop any natural resources which they discovered on the land. After a number of meetings with some of the political and industrial leaders, including Sir Winston Churchill and Anthony de Rothschild, seven firms had agreed to form a consortium to explore, investigate, and, where feasible, to develop the resources.

The seven founding firms are as follows;

* N M Rothschild & Sons
* The Anglo-American Corporation of South America
* Bowater Paper Corporation
* English Electric Company Limited
* Frobisher Limited
* Rio Tinto Company Limited
* The Anglo-Newfoundland Development Company Limited.

They were joined by seventeen other firms before the principal agreement was signed with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador in 1953. These additional firms included Bank of Montreal, Royal Bank of Canada and Suez Canal Company.