Consolidated Gold Fields was a British

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

company. It was listed on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

and was a constituent of the

FTSE 100 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is the United Kingdom's best-known stock market index of the 100 most highly capitalised blue chips listed on ...

until it was acquired by Hanson in 1988.

History

Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa 1898

Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa was founded in 1887 and incorporated in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

to fund the newly discovered gold reefs in the Transvaal.Monopolies & Mergers Commission Report into potential acquisition of Consolidated Gold Fields by Minorco
/ref> By 1900 it had already started to diversify outside

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. After 1945 it acquired mines in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. Until the 1970s, it was predominantly a mining finance house receiving income from passive investments. In 1970 A.R.O. Williams O.B.E, who was then Managing Director, retired. After the 1970s it transformed itself into natural resource group concentrating on a relatively small number of minerals. The company had three major wholly owned subsidiaries: Amalgamated Roadstone Corporation, Gold fields Corporation and ARC America, both in the United States. By the late 1980s it was considering withdrawing from South Africa completely. It was then the subject of an acrimonious, hostile and unsuccessful take-over bid by Minorco early in 1988. Consolidated Gold Fields played a key role in ending apartheid in South Africa; Michael Young, the company's public affairs director embarked on the controversial course of initiating secret discussions between the South African government and the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...

at Mells Park House in the company's estate in Somerset. This ultimately resulted in the release of

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ( , ; born Rolihlahla Mandela; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa f ...

in 1990 and the handover of power to majority rule: the events are described in book ''The Fall of Apartheid'' by Robert Harvey and the 2009 television film '' Endgame''.Briton who helped end South Africa's apartheid
The Times, 4 May 2009

Demise of the business

The company was acquired by Hanson in 1988 for £3.5bn.Obituary: Lord Hanson
The Times, 3 November 2004

History

Demise of the business

References

Further reading