A Canadian zinc mining company and a Canadian nonprofit devoted to getting vitamins and minerals to children in poor countries recently joined forces to create a new partnership, the Zinc Alliance for Child Health...Zinc...is a mineral crucial in trace amounts to children’s growth, brain development and immune system functions...Teck Resources...announced that it would give $6.2 million to help six million children in Senegal get zinc supplements. Its partners in the new alliance are the Micronutrient Initiative, a nonprofit group based in Ottawa, and the Canadian International Development Agency, through which Canada channels foreign aid. A 2006 World Health Organization review of nutrition studies concluded that zinc supplements help save the lives of children with severe diarrhea when given in conjunction with oral rehydration solution. Zinc also helped save severely underweight children.