ASARCO
ASARCO (American Smelting and Refining Company) is a mining, smelting, and refining company based in Tucson, Arizona, which mines and processes primarily copper. The company has been a subsidiary of Grupo México since 1999.
Its three largest open-pit mines are the Mission, Silver Bell and Ray mines in Arizona. Its mines produce 350,000,000 to 400,000,000 pounds (160,000,000 to 180,000,000 kg) of copper a year. ASARCO conducts solvent extraction and electrowinning at the Ray and Silver Bell mines in Pima County, Arizona, and Pinal County, Arizona, and operates a smelter in Hayden, Arizona. ASARCO's smelting plant in El Paso, Texas, was suspended in 1999 and then demolished on April 13, 2013. Before closing, the plant produced 1,000,000,000 pounds (450,000,000 kg) of anodes each year. Refining at the mines as well as at a copper refinery in Amarillo, Texas, produce 375,000,000 pounds (170,000,000 kg) of refined copper each year.
ASARCO's hourly workers are primarily represented by the United Steelworkers.
ASARCO has 20
History
ASARCO was founded in 1888 as the American Smelting and Refining Company by
In April 1901, the Guggenheim family gained control of the company, and in 1905, bought the Tacoma smelter from the Bunker Hill Mining Company. ASARCO eventually controlled 90% of the U.S. lead production, essentially becoming a smelter trust.[2]
On January 11, 1916, sixteen ASARCO employees were killed and mutilated by Pancho Villa's men near the town of Santa Isabel, Chihuahua. It was one of the incidents that sparked the Mexican Expedition, a United States Army attempt to capture or kill Villa.
Based in Tucson, Arizona, the company grew to conduct mining, smelting, and refining of primarily copper. Open-pit mining is primarily utilized as the most efficient method of recovering this metal; the company's three largest such works are the Mission, Silver Bell, and the Ray mines in Arizona. The company had also operated in silver mining in Idaho. Its mines produce 350,000,000 to 400,000,000 pounds (160,000,000 to 180,000,000 kg) of copper a year.
ASARCO conducts solvent extraction and electrowinning at the Ray and Silver Bell mines in Pima County, Arizona, and Pinal County, Arizona, and operates a smelter in Hayden, Arizona. It also had a smelting plant in El Paso, Texas, operations of which were suspended.
In 1975 it officially changed its name to ASARCO Incorporated. In 1999 it was acquired by Grupo México, which had begun as ASARCO's 49%-owned Mexican subsidiary in 1965.
On August 9, 2005, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Corpus Christi,[3] Texas under then-president Daniel Tellechea.
As of 2019, ASARCO operates two primary locations in the United States, a mining and smelting complex in Arizona and a copper refinery in Amarillo, Texas.
Pollution and environmental issues
ASARCO has been found responsible for environmental pollution at 20 Superfund sites across the U.S. by the Environmental Protection Agency. Among those sites are:
- American Smelting and Refining Co., located in Omaha, Nebraska. Plant dissembled, remediation completed and site reused.[4]
- Interstate Lead Company, or ILCO, labeled EPA Site ALD041906173, and located in Leeds, Jefferson County, Alabama[5]
- Argo Smelter, Omaha & Grant Smelter, labeled EPA Site COD002259588, and located at Vasquez Boulevard and Denver, Colorado[6]
- "Smeltertown", El Paso County, Texas, where the copper plant's furnaces were illegally used to dispose of hazardous waste. The plant has since been dismantled.[7]
- California Gulch mine and river systems in Leadville, Colorado;
- Summitville Consolidated Mining Corp., Inc. (SCMCI), now bankrupt, EPA Site COD983778432, in Del Norte, Rio Grande County, Colorado;
- ASARCO Globe Plant, EPA Site COD007063530, Globeville, near South Platte River, Denver and Adams County, Colorado;
- Bunker Hill Mining and Metallurgical, Coeur d'Alene River Basin, Idaho;
- Kin-Buc Landfill in New Jersey;
- Tar Creek (Ottawa County) lead and zinc operations and surrounding residences in Oklahoma;
- Commencement Bay, Near Shore/Tide Flats smelter, groundwater, and residences in Tacoma and Ruston, Washington.
- Everett Smelter, Everett, Washington.[8]
- Murray, Utah lead smelter operation, since reclaimed as part of EPA Superfund program and now the location of the Intermountain Medical Center.[9]
Litigation history
After the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment sued ASARCO for damages to natural resources in 1983, the EPA placed the ASARCO Globe Plant on its National Priorities List of Superfund sites, with ASARCO to pay for the site's cleanup.[10]
In 1972 ASARCO's downtown Omaha plant in Nebraska was found to be releasing high amounts of lead into the air and ground surrounding the plant. In 1995 ASARCO submitted a demolition and site cleanup plan to the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality for their impact on the local residential area. Fined $3.6 million in 1996 for discharging lead and other pollutants into the
In 1991 the
In 2007, the Environmental Protection Agency released the results of soil and air tests in
Documentary
ASARCO's Tar Creek Superfund site was the subject of the film documentary Tar Creek (2009), made by Matt Myers. At one time, Tar Creek was considered to be the worst environmental problem on the EPA's list of more than 1200 sites.
See also
- 1913 El Paso smelters' strike
- List of Superfund sites in Alabama
- List of Superfund sites in Colorado
- List of Superfund sites in Illinois
- List of Superfund sites in Oklahoma
- Picher, Oklahoma
- Francis H. Brownell
References
- ^ a b c ICTMN Staff, "Mining Company to Pay Coeur d’Alene, State of Idaho and U.S. Government", archived, Indian Country Today Media Network, 16 June 2011; accessed 2 June 2016
- ISBN 978-0-8061-3898-5.
- ^ "Newmont Mining, Form 10-Q, Quarterly Report, Filing Date Oct 28, 2005". secdatabase.com. Retrieved Jan 15, 2013.
- ^ "Final statewide sampling and analysis plan, Omaha lead site, Omaha, Nebraska". US EPA Region 7, April 2010. Retrieved January 23, 2020.
- ^ ILCO EPA. Retrieved 4/10/08.
- ^ Argo Smelter, Omaha and Grant Smelter, EPA. Retrieved 4/10/08.
- ^ El Paso Smelter Timeline, EPA. Retrieved 7/23/2012.
- ^ "Everett Smelter – Washington State Department of Ecology".
- ^ "MURRAY SMELTER Site Profile".
- ^ ASARCO Globe Plant, Colorado
- ^ Early Omaha: Gateway to the West: "American Smelter and Refining Company" Archived September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine Omaha Public Library. Retrieved 2/3/08.
- ^ (2003) National Priorities List Site Narrative for Omaha Lead. United States EPA. Retrieved 2/3/08.
- ^ Becky Kramer, "Hecla Mining Co. settles Superfund cleanup lawsuit", The Spokesman, 14 June 2011; accessed 31 May 2016
- ^ "Hecla Mining Company to Pay $263 Million in Settlement to Resolve Idaho Superfund Site Litigation and Foster Cooperation", Press release, US Department of Justice, 13 June 2011; accessed 31 May 2016
- ^ Arizona Department of Environmental Quality
- ^ Burnett, John (February 4, 2010). "A Toxic Century: Mining Giant Must Clean Up Mess". NPR. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
External links
- Official website
- profile in International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. 4. St. James Press, 1991 (via fundinguniverse.com)
- Grupo México history
- A Toxic Century: Mining Giant ASARCO Must Clean Up Mess : NPR 2010
- Link to CNN transcript of the ASARCO El Paso Video 2008
- Marilyn Berlin Snell, "Going for Broke" Sierra Club Magazine, May/June 2006.
- Michael E. Ketterer, The ASARCO El Paso Smelter: A Source of Local Contamination of Soils in El Paso (Texas), Ciudad Juarez (Chihuahua, Mexico), and Anapra (New Mexico), 2006.
- Jake Bernstein, Clean up or Cover Up?[permanent dead link] "The Texas Observer", 2004.
- Corpus Christi's Refinery row Archived 2006-10-10 at the Wayback Machine
- Describes criminal conviction of an ASARCO supplier
- ASARCO Taylor Springs Illinois Archived 2015-08-29 at the Wayback Machine, Historical Society of Montgomery County Illinois