Union Corporation Limited was a South African mining house. It was founded as the A Goerz & Co Ltd in the late 1890's as a gold mining company. After World War One, it was renamed the Union Corporation. In 1980 it was merged into the General Mining and Finance Corporation later called Gencor.
History
It was founded on 29 December 1897 as A Goerz & Co Ltd.
[ It took over the interests of the British registered company founded by Adolf Goerz in 1893. It had purchased 326 claims on the Witwatersrand gold fields.][ In 1902 the company 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 ...
after a share offering was taken up by British and French investors.[ The company was renamed Union Corporation in 1918.
The company owned the East Geduld. In 1947, the construction of the St Helena mine began in the Orange Free State. It discovered the Evander goldfields in 1951,][ and would open four mines in ]Evander
Evander is a masculine given name. It is an anglicization of the Greek name Εὔανδρος (lit. "good man", Latinized ''Evandrus''). It has also been adopted as an anglicization of the Gaelic name Ìomhar (the Gaelic variant of the name Ivor) ...
.[
In 1969, it started ]Impala Platinum
Impala Platinum Holdings Limited or Implats is a South African holding company that owns several companies which operate mines that produce platinum and platinum group metals, as well as nickel, copper and cobalt. Its most significant mine is the ...
, and became a uranium producer at Beisa in 1978.[ Other interests included ]mineral sands
Heavy mineral sands are a class of ore deposit which is an important source of zirconium, titanium, thorium, tungsten, rare-earth elements, the industrial minerals diamond, sapphire, garnet, and occasionally precious metals or gemstones.
Heavy mi ...
north of Richards Bay as Richards Bay Minerals and had an interest in the Port of Richards Bay
The Port of Richards Bay is located in Richards Bay harbour on the Indian Ocean coast of South Africa, and contains the Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) which is the largest coal export facility in Africa.
Although originally built to handle c ...
development.[
Key personalities included Henry Strakosch, who was appointed Managing Director in London in 1902 and Peter Maltitz Anderson, who joined the company in 1911 and became Manager of UCL in 1921.Union Corporation Ltd (UCL), MyFundi]
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In 1980 the group merged with General Mining and Finance Corporation to form Gencor,[ which was in turn amalgamated with ]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 St ...
in 1998.
See also
* Borehole UC 65
References
{{Authority control
Mining companies of South Africa
Mining in South Africa