Anaconda Company

Anaconda Company, former American mining company, for much of the 20th century one of the largest mining companies in the world. Originally producing copper, it later moved into other metals, including aluminum, silver, and uranium, as well as numerous related operations. In 1977 it became a subsidiary of the Atlantic Richfield Company.

In 1880 Marcus Daly, an Irish immigrant, and a group of California investors including George Hearst, father of publisher William Randolph Hearst, formed the Anaconda Gold and Silver Mining Company to operate a mine near Butte, Montana. In 1882 the mine struck a rich vein of copper, and Daly built Anaconda’s first copper smelter to process the ore. The company reincorporated as the Anaconda Mining Company in 1891 and as the Anaconda Copper Mining Company in 1895; during that time it built and acquired a number of works, including smelters but also coal mines and sawmills to support the copper operation. In 1899 the company, along with other mining companies in the area, was purchased by a holding company called the Amalgamated Copper Company, which had been set up by officers of the Standard Oil Trust. Amalgamated allowed its companies to operate independently, and over the following decade Anaconda succeeded in taking over all the companies held by the trust. By 1915, when Amalgamated ceased to exist, Anaconda had become the world’s largest copper producer. The company added other metals to its operations, and in recognition of its diversifying interests it was renamed the Anaconda Company in 1955.

In 1914 Anaconda started buying into foreign mining companies. By 1929 the company owned all of Chile Copper Company, whose Chuquicamata mine was the world’s most productive. In 1971 Chile’s newly elected socialist president, Salvador Allende, expropriated Anaconda’s Chilean copper mines under powers granted by an amendment to Chile’s constitution. The Allende government was overthrown in 1973, and the new military government agreed to pay Anaconda more than $250 million for its expropriated mines.

Losses from the Chilean takeover, however, seriously weakened the company’s financial position, which was also troubled by the falling price of copper in world markets. In 1977 the company was bought by the Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO), a petroleum company seeking to diversify its holdings, and Anaconda ceased to exist as a unified operation. During the 1980s, with copper prices staying low, ARCO closed numerous mines and processing plants once run by Anaconda, and finally the company sold its metals operations to a number of buyers.