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Links to individual Bellatrovata pages
Bellatrovata and Paradoxplace are the creations of Adrian Fletcher
All original material © Adrian Fletcher 2000-07 - The contents may not be reproduced without permission. Feedback and comments to Adrian Fletcher
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Bellatrovata
SPRING IN SPAIN, 2006 ARCENA & NW ANDALUCIA JAMON CENTRE OF SPAIN, NATIONAL PARK AND THE BIRTHPLACE OF RIO TINTO
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| Arcena - centre for the Parque natural de la Sierra de Arcena and the best pig products in Spain - also a famous mining name .... | ||||||||||||
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The richly mineralized hills of the Rio Tinto had been mined since mining began, but things moved up several gears when the area was taken over by a London consortium in 1872. Now it's all over, and the great open pits sit there quietly filling up with water.
For those interested in the sociology of long term corporate excellence, just over ten years later (in 1886) and a long way south in the Transvaal, South Africa, George Harrison, an Australian prospector, identified outcropping gold bearing rock on a farm called Langlaagte. Sadly, Harrison failed to appreciate the significance of what he had discovered, and he sold his claim for £10 and moved on to the "more prospective" goldfields of the eastern Transvaal .... 10 years later the farm had become Johannesburg, and had a population of 100,000 !!
Rand Mines ("The Corner House Group"), the huge South African mining house which owned the Johannesburg mines - ended up being a shadow of its former self before it was put out of its misery by being taken over by an engineering group in the early 1970s. By contrast The Rio Tinto Company is now one of the biggest mining groups in the world.
A more savvy Australian, the boundary rider Charles Rasp, did recognize the potential of an odd shaped hill in the far west of New South Wales, and put together a syndicate which evolved into the Broken Hill Company on August 10 1885. After metamorphizing into a steelmaker, and then an oil and gas producer and then a miner again, BHP competes with Rio Tinto for one of the top global mining company spots.
Back in the town of Riotinto, the original mining town is still a thriving centre and a new owner has "gone underground".
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Links to individual Bellatrovata pages
Bellatrovata and Paradoxplace are the creations of Adrian Fletcher
All original material © Adrian Fletcher 2000-07 - The contents may not be reproduced without permission. Feedback and comments to Adrian Fletcher
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