| Type | State owned |
|---|---|
| Industry | Asphalt |
| Founded | 1851 |
| Headquarters | Trinidad |
| Key people | Garry Solomon, (CEO) |
| Website | www.trinidadlakeasphalt.com |
Lake Asphalt of Trinidad and Tobago is a company based in La Brea in Trinidad involved in the mining, processing and exporting of asphalt products from the Pitch Lake.
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The business was founded in 1851 by the tenth Earl of Dundonald who took out a patent for the use of asphalt from the Lake at La Brea.[1] J.W. Previte and A.L Barber later joined the team and in 1888 secured a 21-year concession for the exploitation of the Lake.[1] In 1949 the business was renamed The Trinidad Lake Asphalt Company.[1] Ownership remained with the Previte Company based in the UK which comprised a network approximately 24 public companies around the world through which the asphalt was sold.[2]
The Limmer & Trinidad Lake Asphalt Company became the first contractor to use asphalt from the Lake for road surfacing.[1] In the early 1970s the UK market switched to Coal tar, asphalt became a much less popular product and the Government of Trinidad and Tobago took ownership of the asphalt extraction business in 1978.[1]
Asphalt from the Lake is currently sold throughout the world as a modifier for refinery bitumen.[2]