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The borax deposit here was discovered in 1913, by John K. Suckow, [4] who when drilling for water found a deposit of what he believed to be gypsum. Further testing revealed it was the colemanite form of borax. Francis Marion "Borax" Smith bought the claim for his Pacific Coast Borax Company. [5] [6] Mining at the site by shafts began in the 1920s.
Rio Tinto Boron mine and plant, 2012 Boron (right center) and the Rio Tinto Borax mine from ISS, 2013. A large borax deposit was discovered in 1925, [25] and the mining town of Boron was established soon thereafter. This borax deposit is now the world's largest borax mine. [23] It is owned by Rio Tinto Minerals (formerly U.S. Borax).
28 United States. 29 Zambia. 30 See also. 31 References. ... Rio Tinto Borax Mine – California's largest open-pit mine and the largest borax mine in the world;
Borax Lake. Although the hot springs of the Sulphur Bank contained borax, the search led John Allen Veatch to nearby Borax Lake where the California Borax Company established the first commercial borax mining operation in the U.S. beginning in 1860 and ceasing in 1868. The company established land claims to Borax Lake, the Sulphur Bank and ...
Instead he found a white crystalline powder, borax, in the dry Searles Lake bed. [7] In 1873, he went into production as the San Bernardino Borax Mining Company to mine borax. Long mule teams were used to haul borax in wagons to San Pedro, until the much closer settlement of Mojave was used after the Southern Pacific Railroad reached it in 1876 ...
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 Minerals (Rio Tinto Group) in 1967. As a wholly owned subsidiary , the company now is called Rio Tinto Borax and continues to supply nearly half the world's borates.
After discovery of Borax deposits here by Aaron and Rosie Winters in 1881, business associates William Tell Coleman and Francis Marion Smith subsequently obtained claims to these deposits, opening the way for "large-scale" borax mining in Death Valley. [3] Coleman constructed Harmony Borax Works and production of borax started in late 1883. [4]
Borax (Na 2 B 4 O 5 (OH) 4 · 8 H 2 O [2]) is a borate mineral found in evaporite deposits of alkaline lacustrine environments and as a surface efflorescence in arid regions. It is the chief mineral mined from the deposits at Boron, California and nearby locations, and is the chief source of commercial borax .