Pacific Coast Borax Company

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Pacific Coast Borax Company was a United States mining company founded in 1890 by the American borax magnate Francis Marion Smith. The company established and aggressively developed the famous 20 Mule Team Borax trademark in order to promote the sale of its product. The name derived from the twenty mule teams that were used to transport borax out of Death Valley in the 1880s.

The first reinforced concrete building constructed in the United States was the Pacific Coast Borax Company's refinery in Alameda, California, built in 1893.

In 1956, the Pacific Coast Borax Company merged with United States Potash Corporation to form U.S. Borax, which itself was acquired by Rio Tinto Group in 1967. As a wholly owned subsidiary, the company now is called Borax or Rio Tinto Borax and continues to supply nearly half the world's borates. It operates the largest open-pit mine in California in the company town of Boron.

[edit] Reference

  • Hildebrand, G.H. (1982). Borax Pioneer: Francis Marion Smith. San Diego: Howell-North Books. (ISBN 0-8310-7148-6)