| Company type | Subsidiary (1977–83) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Mining |
| Founded | 1881 in Anaconda, Montana |
| Founder | Marcus Daly |
| Defunct | 1983 (de facto) |
| Fate | Closed |
| Headquarters | , United States |
Number of locations | Anaconda, Butte, Columbia Falls, Great Falls, Thompson Falls (all in Montana) Anaconda, New Mexico Thunder Basin area, Wyoming Weed Heights, Nevada (1952–78) Chuquicamata, Chile (1922–71) Cananea, Mexico (1922–71) Katowice, Poland (1926–39) Tooele, Utah (1909–81) |
| Products | Copper, aluminum, zinc, silver, gold, uranium and other metals; coal; forest products |
| Parent | ARCO |
The Anaconda Copper Mining Company, known as the Amalgamated Copper Company from 1899 to 1915,[1] was an American mining company headquartered in Butte, Montana. It was one of the largest trusts of the early 20th century and one of the largest mining companies in the world for much of the 20th century.[1]
Marcus Daly bought the original silver mine, named the Anaconda, in 1880. Daly partnered with George Hearst, James Ben Ali Haggin and Lloyd Tevis in 1881 to develop it, and the company expanded dramatically in 1882 with the discovery of huge copper deposits. In 1883, Daly began building a smelter and the town of Anaconda to process copper mined in Butte. In 1899, with Hearst and Tevis deceased, Haggin retired and Daly restructured the enterprise into the Amalgamated Copper Company, bringing in H H Rogers and William Rockefeller.
By 1910, Amalgamated had expanded its operations and bought the assets of all other copper companies operating in Butte. In 1922, Anaconda bought mining operations in Mexico and Chile; the latter hosted the largest mine in the world and for a time yielded two-thirds of the company's profits. The company added aluminum reduction to its portfolio in 1955. In the 1950s, the company switched over from underground to open-pit mining. In 1960 its operations employed 37,000 employees in North America and Chile.
Anaconda Copper was purchased by the Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) on January 12, 1977. ARCO halted production at the Anaconda smelter in 1980, and mining ceased completely in 1982 when the deep pumps draining the Berkeley Pit and the underground mines were shut off, allowing the Pit and mines to fill. The company presently only exists as a major environmental liability for BP, who bought out ARCO in 2000. Its former operations are now the largest Superfund site in the country; CERCLA liability passed to BP upon its acquisition of ARCO.