MIM Holdings Limited was an Australian mining company founded in 1970 [1] as the parent company of Mount Isa Mines, which operates the Mount Isa mines in north-west Queensland.
Based in Ann Street, Brisbane, MIM Holdings owned and/or operated coal, gold, and base metal mines in Australia and Argentina. It also operated lead and copper smelters in Mount Isa, a copper refinery in Townsville (Queensland), a lead refinery at Northfleet (England), zinc smelters using the Imperial Smelting Process at the National Smelting Company located within Avonmouth Docks (England) and Duisburg (Germany), and a precious metals refinery in Sydney. In the early 1980s, it was briefly Australia's largest company by market capitalisation. [2]
It also held, at some stages, cross-shareholdings in ASARCO, Cominco and Metallgesellschaft. It sold its interests in Cominco and Metallgesellschaft during the 1993–1994 Australian financial year. [3]
MIM Holdings was responsible for several significant technological advances in the mining industry, including the Isa Process tank house technology, developed at its subsidiary Copper Refineries Pty Ltd in Townsville; the Bottom-blown oxygen converter developed at its lead refining subsidiary, Britannia Refined Metals, at Northfleet in England; and the ISASMELT top-entry submerged lance smelting process, Jameson Cell flotation technology, and the IsaMill fine grinding technology, all developed at its Mount Isa Mines Limited operations in Mount Isa.[ citation needed ]
MIM Holdings was taken over by Xstrata for a total of US$2.96 billion in 2003 and delisted from the Australian Securities Exchange on 30 June 2003. [4] [5] At that time, MIM Holdings was one of the world's biggest coal exporters. [6]