Richard C. Baker (1858 – 1937) was the British business partner of Francis Marion "Borax" Smith and eventually became president of the

Pacific Coast Borax Company The Pacific Coast Borax Company (PCB) was a United States mining company founded in 1890 by the American borax magnate Francis Smith, the "Borax King". History The roots of the Pacific Coast Borax Company lie in Mineral County, Nevada, east of ...

and the

Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad The Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad was a former class II railroad that served eastern California and southwestern Nevada. The railroad was built mainly to haul borax from Francis Marion Smith's Pacific Coast Borax Company mines located just eas ...

. In 1899,

"Borax" Smith Francis Marion Smith (February 2, 1846 – August 27, 1931) was an American miner, business magnate and civic builder in the Mojave Desert, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Oakland, California. He was known nationally and internationally as " ...

, founder of

joined forces with Baker to form Borax Consolidated, Ltd. Together they formed a multinational mining conglomerate, and Baker worked to expand the company's foreign holdings in Italy, Turkey, and South America and subsequently became responsible for capitally financing the corporation's development. The incorporation included the Sterling Borax Company and the Suckow Property which is now operated as the

Rio Tinto Borax Mine The Rio Tinto Boron Mine (formerly the U.S. Borax Boron Mine) in Boron, California is California's largest open-pit mine and the largest borax mine in the world, producing nearly half the world's borates. Ore reserves are sufficient for cur ...

, the largest open pit mine in California and the largest borax mine in the world where almost half of the world's

borates A borate is any of a range of boron oxyanions, anions containing boron and oxygen, such as orthoborate , metaborate , or tetraborate ; or any salt (chemistry), salt of such anions, such as sodium metaborate, and borax . The name also refers to es ...

are now produced.Rio Tinto Company Website
/ref> After Smith's bankruptcy in 1913, Baker took control of the company, and he remained president until his death in 1937. In 1908,

Baker, California Baker is a census-designated place located in San Bernardino County, California, US. As of the 2020 census, the CDP had a total population of 442. Baker's ZIP Code is 92309 and the community is within area codes 442 and 760. History Baker w ...

, which at that time was a stop on the

, was named for him. The mineral bakerite is also named after him.Handbook of Mineralogy
/ref>

References

Additional sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Richard C. American mining businesspeople American transportation businesspeople 1858 births 1937 deaths Death Valley History of the Mojave Desert region Mining in California Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad 20th-century American railroad executives British emigrants to the United States

See also

References

Additional sources