The Anaconda Company

4687

Certificate of 25 Shares - Montana

€20.00
No tax

The Anaconda Company began as a silver mine but its greatest years were to be based on mining copper.

Marcus Daly took over the Anaconda Mine near Butte, Montana, in 1881. The mine, which had been opened in the 1870s, derived its unusual name from a Civil War report that "General Grant has encircled General Lee like a giant anaconda." Daly, who suspected that the mine contained more than silver, needed money for development and he turned to George Hearst, a California mining speculator.

Daly retained one-fourth interest after adding Lloyd Tevis and James B. Haggin as partners.

In May, 1883, Daly's miners struck a vein of copper at the 400-foot level. A few years later Dalv established the town of Anaconda, 26 miles west of Butte, where a smelter was erected. By 1950, the mines had produced nearly two billion tons of ore. The stock certificate of the Anaconda Company shows a view of one of its mines and a smelter.

The Anaconda Mining Company was incorporated by the partners in 1894, only to be sold a year later to the Rothschilds, who reorganized the firm as the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. By that time, the company had become the world's largest copper producer. Nevertheless, Anaconda was sold again in 1899 to the Standard Oil Trust.

In 1923, Anaconda bought the Chile Copper Company from the Guggenheim family and the Chilean mines surpassed those in Montana, producing as much as half a billion dollars worth of copper per year.

Unfortunately for Anaconda, the Chilean government nationalized the copper mines in 1971, depriving the company of two-thirds of its produc-tion. Profits dropped precipitously and a reduction in Anaconda's operations in the United States could not stem the losses.

In January, 1977, Atlantic Richfield bought the company and continued Anaconda as a wholly owned subsidiary until the end of 1981, when it was merged with Arco's other oil and mining operations.

4687
1 Item

Data sheet

Country
USA
Condition
EF

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