JCI or Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Co. Ltd. was founded in 1889 by the British entrepreneur

Barney Barnato Barney Barnato (21 February 1851 – 14 June 1897), born Barnet Isaacs, was a British Randlord, one of the entrepreneurs who gained control of diamond mining, and later, gold mining in South Africa from the 1870s up to World War I. He is perh ...

. JCI was a major force in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

n mining for over 100 years. Using his investments in the

Kimberley diamond fields The Argyle Diamond Mine was a diamond mine located in the East Kimberley region in the remote north of Western Australia. Argyle was at times the largest diamond producer in the world by volume (14 million carats in 2018), although the propor ...

, particularly his 25% share in

De Beers De Beers Group is an international corporation that specializes in diamond mining, diamond exploitation, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, large-scale alluvial and ...

, Barnato foresaw the value of and invested in the potential of the

Witwatersrand The Witwatersrand () (locally the Rand or, less commonly, the Reef) is a , north-facing scarp in South Africa. It consists of a hard, erosion-resistant quartzite metamorphic rock, over which several north-flowing rivers form waterfalls, which ...

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

mines. At first he bought small but rich mines near Germiston – the New Primrose, named after his daughter, and others in the same region. In 1913 JCI bought the

Randfontein Randfontein is a gold mining town in the West Rand, Gauteng, South Africa, west of Johannesburg. With the Witwatersrand gold rush in full swing, mining financier JB Robinson bought the farm Randfontein and, in 1889, floated the Randfontein Est ...

Estates Gold Mining Company, which was a fabulously rich mine, from Sir J.B. Robinson. At the peak of its production Randfontein was equipped with 600 stamp mills, the roar of which could be heard in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

. Randfontein Estates was an extraordinarily rich mining property, and in the 1950s was a pioneer of

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weakly ...

production. During the 1930s Randfontein was the largest gold producer in South Africa, if not the world. JCI was also involved with numerous mining ventures –

New State Mines New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

Brakpan Brakpan is a mining town in the Gauteng province of South Africa. History The name Brakpan comes from a small pan on a farm called Weltevreden, which was filled with very brackish water and was probably referred to as the "brakpan," and it was nea ...

Modder Deep Mines ''Modding'' is a slang expression derived from the English verb "wiktionary:modify, to modify". The term refers to modification of hardware, software, or anything else, to perform a function not originally intended by the designer, or to achiev ...

at Benoni,

Van Dyk Mines A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across th ...

at Benoni. In the 1960s Randfontein was virtually closed down, and mining was developed at Western Areas on the other side of the shallow valley, but in the 1970s new deposits were discovered to the south of Randfontein and the Cooke Section was opened up in 1976. Cooke produced gold and uranium, the uranium being destined for the

Koeberg Nuclear Power Station Koeberg nuclear power station is a nuclear power station in South Africa. It is currently the only one on the entire African continent. It is located 30 km north of Cape Town, near Melkbosstrand on the west coast of South Africa. Koeberg ...

fuel. In addition to the gold mines, 25% of De Beers and a

controlling interest A controlling interest is an ownership interest in a corporation with enough voting stock shares to prevail in any stockholders' motion. A majority of voting shares (over 50%) is always a controlling interest. When a party holds less than the majo ...

in Rustenburg Platinum Holdings, the world's largest

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Pla ...

producer, JCI owned large industrial and property holdings, including the Houghton Estate in northern Johannesburg, and substantial shareholdings in

South African Breweries South African Breweries (officially The South African Breweries Limited, informally SAB) is a major brewery headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa and was a wholly owned subsidiary of SABMiller until its interests were sold to Anheuser-Bus ...

Toyota South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countries of ...

, Lennings Industrial, etc., and was long a target of developers who lusted after the property holdings.

Anglo American Corporation Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from, the Angles, England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term ''Anglosphere''. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people o ...

purchased a 52% holding in JCI, agreeing to protect the company against predatory takeovers, and this situation continued until 1994. JCI installed a technically advanced Precious Metals Refinery at Rustenburg, which processed

Platinum Group The platinum-group metals (abbreviated as the PGMs; alternatively, the platinoids, platinides, platidises, platinum group, platinum metals, platinum family or platinum-group elements (PGEs)) are six noble, precious metallic elements clustered to ...

metals totally in South Africa, and built a

ferrochrome Ferrochrome, or ferrochromium (FeCr) is a type of ferroalloy, that is, an alloy of chromium and iron, generally containing 50 to 70% chromium by weight. Ferrochrome is produced by electric arc carbothermic reduction of chromite. Most of the gl ...

smelter Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including silver, iron, copper, and other base metals. Smelting uses heat and a c ...

Lydenburg Lydenburg, officially known as Mashishing, is a town in Thaba Chweu Local Municipality, on the Mpumalanga highveld, South Africa. It is situated on the Sterkspruit/Dorps River tributary of the Lepelle River at the summit of the Long Tom Pass. ...

which was the first in South Africa to directly smelt chromite fine ore. In the late 1980s JCI started development of an ultra deep mine to the south of Western Areas, South Deep. The ownership of South Deep has now devolved to

Gold Fields Gold Fields Limited (formerly The Gold Fields of South Africa) is one of the world's largest gold mining firms. Headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, the company is listed on both the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and the New York ...

, and the deposit is still being developed as one of the largest low-grade gold deposits in the world. In 1995 the majority shareholder, Anglo American Corp, decided to offer JCI to the new political dispensation in South Africa as a

Black Economic Empowerment Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) is a policy of the South African government which aims to facilitate broader participation in the economy by black people. A form of affirmative action, it is intended especially to redress the inequalities cre ...

vehicle. A new Chairman, Mzi Khumalo, took over the mining side, whilst the property and investment side was separated and morphed into Johnnic Communications. The platinum interests were moved into

Anglo American Platinum Anglo American Platinum Limited () is the world's largest primary producer of platinum, accounting for about 38% of the world's annual supply. Based in South Africa, most of the group's operations lie to the northwest and northeast of Johannesbu ...

, Amplats. JCI was always at the forefront of technical development – trackless mining, ferrochrome processing (CMI, Lydenburg), computer control of process plants, treatment of refractory gold ores – to name a few areas where pioneering work was done.

Alleged crimes

It has been alleged by

Four Corners The Four Corners is a region of the Southwestern United States consisting of the southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico. The Four Corners area ...

that Brett Kebble, John Stratton, and others in their roles as Chairman and directors of the company respectively defrauded and conspired to defraud the company of some 7.6 billion rand. Additionally, it was alleged that John Stratton then procured Brett Kebble's murder, with which

Glenn Agliotti Roger Brett Kebble (19 February 1964 – 27 September 2005) was a South African mining magnate with close links to factions in the ruling political party, the African National Congress. Known to be personally eccentric, he became a major player ...

has been charged. In August 2010, an American company Hemispherx was awarded $188 million Judgment Against JCI by Court in Miami, alleging that JCI wrongly obtained confidential information as part of an effort to devalue Hemispherx's stock price and gain control, according to court papers.

References

{{reflist

External links

company page

Mining companies of South Africa Coal companies of South Africa Uranium mining companies of South Africa Gold mining companies of South Africa Platinum mining companies Non-renewable resource companies established in 1889 1889 establishments in the Cape Colony

Alleged crimes

See also

References

External links