ASARCO

ASARCO (American Smelting and Refining Company[1]) is a mining, smelting, and refining company based in Tucson, Arizona, which mines and processes primarily copper.

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 lb 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 lb of anodes each year. Refining at the mines as well as at a copper refinery in Amarillo, Texas, produce 375,000,000 lb of refined copper each year.

ASARCO's hourly workers are primarily represented by the United Steelworkers.

ASARCO has 20 superfund sites across the United States, and it is subject to considerable litigation over pollution. After emerging from bankruptcy in 2008, it made a settlement with the government of $1.79 billion for contamination at various sites; the funds were allotted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for cleanup at 26 sites around the country.[2]

History

ASARCO was founded in 1888 as the American Smelting and Refining Company by Henry H. Rogers, William Rockefeller, Adolph Lewisohn, Robert S. Towne, Anton Eilers, and Leonard Lewisohn.

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.[3]

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 lb 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 have since been suspended.

Chemetco

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:

• 1) American Smelting and Refining Co., located in Omaha, Nebraska. Plant disassembled, remediation completed and site reused.[8]
• 2) Interstate Lead Company, or ILCO, labeled EPA Site ALD041906173, and located in Leeds, Jefferson County, Alabama[9]
• 3) Argo Smelter, Omaha & Grant Smelter, labeled EPA Site COD002259588, and located at Vasquez Boulevard and I-70 in Denver, Colorado[10]
• 4) "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.

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.[14]

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 Missouri River, ASARCO closed its Omaha plant in July 1997.[15] After extensive site cleanup, the land was turned over to the City of Omaha as a 23 acre park. All of East Omaha, comprising more than 8,000 acres (32 km2), was declared a Superfund site. As of 2003, 290 acres (1.2 km2) had been cleaned.[16]

In 1991 the Coeur d'Alene Tribe filed suit under CERCLA against Hecla Mining Company, ASARCO and other defendants for damages and cleanup costs downstream of what has been designated as the Bunker Hill Mine and Smelting Complex

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

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,