Rio Tinto had international mining interests from quite early on, and
at least a marketing foothold in the USA from 1911, although the
details at my fingertips are sparse. I have only a few brief notes,
mainly about the company's interests in Australia. However, I have
the 1936 Mining Year Book (London) which says (pp. 509-510):
"Of recent years the company's activities have been greatly extended,
both in character and magnitude, and now include, in addition to the
mines in Spain, important mining, metallurgical and chemical
interests in many countries. The company carries on its North
American business through the Pyrites Company Inc., which possesses
at Wilmington, Delaware, USA, a modern copper extraction works which
treats residues from the company's ore."
The Pyrites Company Inc was formed in 1911 (I think it still exists),
at first to market Spanish pyrites in the USA, but it later became
involved in copper mining. In 1900, Rio Tinto was the biggest copper
mining company in the world, but by the 1920s, US companies like
Anaconda, Kennecott, Calumet & Hecla and Phelps Dodge had all
outstripped it. Rio Tinto fought back by expanding its interests,
and by the late 1920s it had interests in Algeria, USA, British
Guiana, Peru and Chile. However, the company was always unsure
whether its main business was copper or fertlisers, so some of these
interests were copper mining and others were in sulphur or phosphates.
Sorry I have no details on US operations, but two books I'd look at are:
Charles Harvey, The Rio Tinto Company: an Economic History of a
Leading Mining Concern, A. Hodge, Penzance, 1981
Richard West, River of Tears: the Rise of the Rio Tinto-Zinc Mining
Corporation, Earth Island, London, 1972
Of course, the company really took off after 1962 with the formation
of RTZ and CRA and expansion into Bougainville, Indonesia, Australia
and South America.
There is a startlingly long list of Rio Tinto's current mining
interests on the web at <http://www.mbendi.co.za/orgs/ci1m.htm> The
website also has an email link to the company's London office.
Peter Bell
On 21/03/2008, at 5:04 AM, TONY BREWIS wrote:
> Jim Besleme asks if someone can "direct him to the Rio Tinto group
> in the UK, hopefully
> to one of their historians, to make an inquiry about a base metal
> mine that they may
> have had in western Arizona during the 1938-1942 time frame. What I
> am looking
> for is the mine's name and general location."
>
> I have no direct contact with Rio Tinto but do, as a former editor
> of Mining Magazine, receive
> their monthly magazine, the Rio Tinto Review. Maybe the editor of
> this could put you in
> contact, Jim, with a suitable person. The editor's name is Hugh
> Leggatt, and his e-mail address
> is [log in to unmask]
>
> I am surprised to learn that Rio Tinto apparently were involved
> with a base metal mine in
> Western Arizona in the period 1938-42. I went to the Rio Tinto mine
> in 1954, and my
> understanding has always been that the Rio Tinto company ran only
> that mine in Spain
> from 1875 until the mine was partly nationalised by Franco about
> the end of 1954. If memory
> serves me right, they were paid the princely sum of £13 million
> pounds for a two-thirds
> share of the mine, and spent some of it on what became the Rio
> Algom uranium operation
> in Canada, years later buying Consolidated Zinc in Australia to
> become Rio Tinto Zinc.
>
> My memory, of course, could be totally at fault on this, and I have
> no means of reference
> immediately to hand.
> Tony Brewis
_________________
Dr Peter Bell
Historical Research Pty Ltd
PO Box 574, Goodwood SA 5034
Australia
email <[log in to unmask]>
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