The Big Score: Robert Friedland, Inco, & the Voisey's Bay Hustle - Tapa dura

is the site of a massive nickel deposit whose vast potential has riveted the attention of the international business world. The discovery of the deposit in Labrador, the struggles for controlling interest in it, and especially the extraordinary players involved drive this amazing business story, which often reads like a suspense novel.

At the centre is Robert Friedland, an ex-hippie and disgraced Vancouver stock promoter, who by sheer luck ended up holding all the cards in a high-stakes poker game that pitted some of the world's most powerful and conservative mining companies against each other.

When news of the Voisey's Bay motherlode began to circulate, nickel giants such as Inco and Falconbridge were swept up in the excitement, competing in a series of takeover bids for control of Diamond Fields, the company that controlled the find. It all culminated in Inco's winning $4.3-billion offer, the largest takeover price ever paid for mining property.

But was the

Jacquie McNish is a National Newspaper Award winner who has worked as a financial reporter for the Wall Street Journal and is currently a business writer for The Globe and Mail.