American Iron & Metal Company Inc. (AIM) is a Canadian
recycling company for
scrap metal based in
Montreal,
Quebec. Established in 1936 by Peter Black, it is under private ownership of his family, including
Herbert Black, who serves as the
CEO.[1]
In 2002, AIM established a scrapyard in
Saint John,
New Brunswick under a 40-year-lease with the
Port of Saint John. In 2011, the company spent $30 million to expand its yard.[2] In 2014, the company purchased the Bucksport mill in
Bucksport,
Maine from paper mill company
Verso Corporation, leading to the mill's closure.[4][5]
Incidents
In 2022, Delsan-AIM, a division of AIM based in
Vaughan,
Ontario,[6] received a $35,000 fine as a result of a 2019 "demolition-gone-wrong" which resulted in a large
dust cloud covering a neighbourhood in
Sherman Avenue North.[7][8]
On July 1, 2022, Darrell Richards, a worker in AIM's
Saint John scrapyard, died as a result of a
work accident. In 2024, AIM was fined $100,000 for the incident by New Brunswick Provincial Court Judge Claude Haché, and was made to fund a $7,000
scholarship in his name for the
New Brunswick Community College.[9]
On the morning of September 14, 2023, a fire was reported at AIM's scrapyard in Saint John, which resulted in thick
smoke and
haze covering a large part of the city.[10][11] Following the incident, an investigative task force was made to look into the matter.[12] The company also received a fine for operating without a license at a facility in
Moncton.[13][14] In December 2023, the task force said that "a catastrophic fire similar to that of Sept. 14, 2023, could recur." They also found the scrapyard's location "entirely inappropriate given its now known hazards and risks," given its nearby proximity to several houses in
Saint John West.[15]