[roenxi]

I didn't come up with the idea, I saw it in action in a mining context.

Besides, how you can be sure it does or doesn't happen? The world is large and complicated; and basic research gets nearly no press and is very hard to statistically quantify. Where would you look for proof in the positive or negative?

[eythian]

Fonterra, New Zealand's largest company runs along these lines. It's a dairy company, so basically gets milk from dairy farmers and puts it on the market. It is a co-op owned by those farmers.

[pnutjam]

My guess is the mining companies do this more for liability then shared cost. I wonder what the churn is in this group of companies?