Union Corporation

Last updated

Union Corporation Limited was a South African mining house. It was founded as the A Goerz & Co Ltd in the late 1890's as a gold mining company. After World War One, it was renamed the Union Corporation. In 1980 it was merged into the General Mining and Finance Corporation later called Gencor.

Contents

History

It was founded on 29 December 1897 as A Goerz & Co Ltd. [1] : 234  It took over the interests of the British registered company founded by Adolf Goerz in 1893. It had purchased 326 claims on the Witwatersrand gold fields. [1] : 234  In 1902 the company listed on the London Stock Exchange after a share offering was taken up by British and French investors. [1] : 234 

In 1908 it had opened gold mines on the Far East Rand and by 1914 it had financed the Modderfontein Deep Levels mine. [1] : 234  The company was renamed Union Corporation in 1918. [2]

The company owned the East Geduld. In 1947, the construction of the St Helena mine began in the Orange Free State. [3] It discovered the Evander goldfields in 1951, [1] : 234  and would open four mines in Evander. [1] : 234 

In 1969, it started Impala Platinum, and became a uranium producer at Beisa in 1978. [1] : 234  Other interests included mineral sands north of Richards Bay as Richards Bay Minerals and had an interest in the Port of Richards Bay development. [1] : 234 

Key personalities included Henry Strakosch, who was appointed Managing Director in London in 1902 and Peter Maltitz Anderson, who joined the company in 1911 and became Manager of UCL in 1921. [4]

In 1980 the group merged with General Mining and Finance Corporation to form Gencor, [1] : 234  which was in turn amalgamated with Gold Fields in 1998.

See also

Related Research Articles

Freeport-McMoRan Inc., often called Freeport, is an American mining company based in the Freeport-McMoRan Center, in Phoenix, Arizona. The company is the world's largest producer of molybdenum, is a major copper producer and operates the world's largest gold mine, the Grasberg mine in Papua, Indonesia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eldorado Gold</span>

Eldorado Gold Corporation is a Canadian company that owns and operates gold mines in Turkey, Greece and Canada. Since its merger with European Goldfields in 2011 the company has been pursuing the development of the Skouries mine, Olympias mine and Stratoni mine in Greece. The company previously developed and operated gold mines in China, Brazil and Mexico. Headquartered in Vancouver and listed on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges, Eldorado Gold has developed and operated assets from several merged companies HRC Developments Corporation, Afcan Mining Corporation, Sino Gold Mining, Brazauro Resources, Integra Gold, as well as European Goldfields.

Newmont Corporation is an American gold mining company based in Greenwood Village, Colorado. It is the world's largest gold mining corporation. Incorporated in 1921, it owns gold mines in Nevada, Colorado, Ontario, Quebec, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Australia, Ghana, Argentina, Peru, and Suriname. In addition to gold, Newmont mines copper, silver, zinc and lead.

Robert Martin Friedland is an American-Canadian billionaire financier in the mining industry. Since the early 1980s, he has specialized in securing funding for the exploration and development of mineral and energy resources and technology ventures. He is the founder and chairman of his private, family-owned firm, Ivanhoe Capital Corporation, which is active in capital markets, focused on emerging markets. He is the founder and co-chairman of Ivanhoe Mines – a Canadian public company listed on the Toronto and OTCQX exchanges.

Hudbay Minerals Inc. is a diversified Canadian mining company primarily producing copper concentrate and zinc metal. Much of its history has centered on Flin Flon, Manitoba, where it has mined for over 90 years. Hudbay currently has operations in Manitoba and Peru, and is working towards building a copper mine in southern Arizona. The company also has exploration properties in Canada, Peru, Chile and the United States.

The Bottle Match is a varsity match played between the Camborne School of Mines (CSM) of Exeter University and the Royal School of Mines (RSM) of Imperial College London. The first recorded match between the two sides took place on 16 December 1902.

The Mining Association of the United Kingdom is a trade association for all kinds of mining undertaken by UK companies.

Randlords were the capitalists who controlled the diamond and gold mining industries in South Africa from the 1870s up to World War I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Albu</span>

Sir George Albu, 1st Baronet was a mining magnate in the diamond and gold industries of South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mining industry of Ghana</span>

The Mining industry of Ghana accounts for 5% of the country's GDP and minerals make up 37% of total exports. Gold contributes over 90% of the total mineral exports. Thus, the main focus of Ghana's mining and minerals development industry remains focused on gold. Ghana is Africa's largest gold producer, producing 80.5 t in 2008. Ghana is also a major producer of bauxite, manganese and diamonds. Ghana has 20 large-scale mining companies producing gold, diamonds, bauxite and manganese; over 300 registered small scale mining groups; and 90 mine support service companies.Other mineral commodities produced in the country are natural gas, petroleum, salt, and silver.

Vladimir Iorikh or Vladimir Iorich or Vladimir Yorikh or Vladimir Yorich or Vladimir Jorikh or Vladimir Jorich is a Russian steel tycoon, president of the Swiss firm Conares Holding, which he formed in 1995, and founded the private equity and a venture capital Zug, Switzerland, based firm, Pala Investments, which was registered at St Helier in Jersey in 2006, with Jan Castro as the Managing Director of Pala Investments AG, which is the exclusive advisor to Pala in 2008. He claims that he is a German-Swiss tycoon who has nothing to do with Russia but controls uranium mining in the United States.

Borehole UC 65 is a provincial heritage site near Evander in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa.

The Paulsens Gold Mine is a gold mine located 105 km south of Pannawonica, Western Australia, within the pastoral lease of the Mount Stuart Station. It is fully owned by Black Cat Syndicate, having purchased the mine from Northern Star Resources in June 2022. Production at the mine was halted in December 2017 and is currently in care and maintenance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Impala Platinum</span> Multinational mining corporation based in South Africa

Impala Platinum Holdings Limited or Implats is a South African holding company that owns several companies which operate mines that produce platinum and platinum group metals, as well as nickel, copper and cobalt. Its most significant mine is the Impala mine in the North West province of South Africa. The company also owns or has interest in the Two Rivers mine and the Marula mine in the South Africa Bushveld Igneous Complex and the Mimosa mine and Zimplats in Zimbabwe, as well as the Impala Refining Services which smelts and refines metals for other companies. In December 2019, Impala Canada was formed, owned by the holding company, out of the acquisition of North American Palladium and its mine in Ontario, Canada.

Evander is a town in Mpumalanga, South Africa. It is approximately 8 km north west of Secunda.

Gencor Ltd was a South African based mining company. It was formed in 1980 after the merger of the General Mining and Finance Corporation and the Union Corporation. Parts of the company are now owned by Gold Fields and BHP.

Anglovaal Group was one of six large South African holding conglomerates that had interests in mining, finance and industry. It was formed in 1933 as the Anglo-Transvaal Consolidated Investment Company Limited with interests initially in mining. In 1981, it became Anglovaal Limited. It was majority owned throughout its existence by the Hersov and Menell families. In the late 1990s, it would form into two separate companies, Anglovaal Industrial Holdings (AVI) and Anglovaal Minerals (Avmin). As a family owned business, all family interests were to be diluted by 2001. By 2003, Anglovaal Minerals became part of African Rainbow Minerals Limited, a listed black empowerment company.

Selection Trust was a British mining finance house. It was started in 1913 by A. Chester Beatty, a mining engineer from the United States. After the end of the First World War, Beatty built up a substantial portfolio of mining interests, many of them in Africa, but others in Serbia and in Siberia. Initially the company began operations by sharing an office at Number One London Wall in the City of London with the consulting firm of Herbert Hoover, a fellow American mining engineer.

Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd is a Canadian company that holds royalties in gold, silver and diamond mines, principally in the form of net smelter returns and streams. The company also invests in mineral exploration companies in the form of purchases of shares. Like its predecessor company, Osisko Mining, it is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, with shares listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyprus Amax Minerals</span>

Cyprus Amax Minerals was a major US-based mining company formed in 1993 through the merger of AMAX with the Cyprus Minerals Company. It was one of the world's largest producers of Molybdenum and Lithium and was a leading producer of copper and coal. It also produced iron ore and gold. It was acquired by the Phelps Dodge Corporation in 1999.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 International directory of company histories. Vol. 22. Internet Archive. Detroit, Mich.: St. James Press. 1998. ISBN   978-1-55862-663-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  2. ↑ Arthur R. Butz, Was Churchill's Gold Bug Jewish? Archived 2011-09-29 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ↑ "Gencor Ltd. - Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History, Background Information on Gencor Ltd". www.referenceforbusiness.com. Retrieved 2017-08-31.
  4. ↑ Union Corporation Ltd (UCL), MyFundi
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.