Phelps Dodge Miami Inc history

Phelps steered his fledgling empire grimly through a seven-year panic that began during 1837.

Before long, Phe lps started a manufacturing company in Connecticut called the Ansonia Brass and Battery Company, and in 1845 he helped organize the Ansoni a Manufacturing Company, which produced kettles, lamps, rivets, butto ns, and other metal items.

By 1849 the company was capitalize d at almost $1 million, and its profits were almost 30 percent.

On January 1, 1859, the partnership was revised again, to increase the firm's capitalization to $1.5 mill ion and to give William Dodge and Daniel James each a 28 percent shar e.

In 1881 the company bought the Atlanta claim for $40, 000.

The partnership decided to buy Copper Queen when Douglas hit th e main Atlanta lode in 1884, at almost the same time that a Copper Qu een tunnel penetrated the lode from a different spot.

In August 1885 Phelps, Dodge & Co. decided to streamline its oper ations by incorporating the subsidiary Copper Queen Consolidated Mini ng Company in New York, with James Douglas as president.

The Miami Copper Company began working in the Miami area in 1906, and work quickly took off as demand increased.

In 1908 the old Phelps, Dodge & Co. partnership was dissolved, to be replaced by a corporation called Phelps, Dodge & Co., Inc.

The arrival of the train in 1909 assisted with the growth, and the town quickly grew after the townsite date.

With all enterprises operating at capacity, the Bisbee miners went on strike in July 1917.

Phelps Dodge bought Arizona C opper and merged it with its Morenci holdings in 1921 in exchange for 50,000 shares of capital stock.

By 1925 business expansion was demanding record amounts of copper.

Overridi ng the objections of Calumet President Gordon Campbell, who resigned in April 1931, the purchase became final in September, giving Phelps Dodge title to a low-cost New Cornelia mine 150 miles away at Ajo, Ar izona.

Sale s reached $75.5 million, yielding total income of $15.5 milli on, and the number of employees, recorded in mid-1938, reached about 9,000.

1944: Company begins building the Horseshoe Dam on Arizona's V erde River.

Phelps Dodge's contribution to this effort was the Lavender Pit mine, opened in 1954 to develop an extension of the Bisbee operations know n as the Bisbee East orebody.

A 51 percent interest in a 1957 enterprise called the Phelps Dodge Copper Products Corporation of the Philippines gave it a new source of insul ated wire and cable for electrical use.

By 1965 the price of copper rose from 34 cents to 36 cents per pound.

Company Chairman Robert Page handed the helm to George Munroe in 1969 . Still holding the presidency (the office of chairman was abolished) , Munroe oversaw the establishment of a new mine at Tyrone, New Mexic o.

By 1973 Arizona anti-pollution laws require d $17 million worth of emission-control adaptations to this smelt er, although the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was still unde cided about its requirements.

The economy drive began with the 1982 move of company headquarters to Phoenix.

1986: Uranium mining business is sold; carbon black producer C olumbian Chemicals Company is acquired.

A lso providing profitable diversification was Accuride Corporation, a manufacturer of steel wheels and rims for trucks and trailers, which merged with the company in 1988 at a cost of $273 million.

By the end of 1989, the company had an income of $267 million, on sales of $2.7 billion.

The investment in the Phelps Dodge Industries division paid off hands omely in 1995, as the company's carbon black, truck wheel and rim, an d wire and cable businesses each registered a record high in sales.

In 1996, Phelps Dodge's manufacturing businesses continued to perform admirably, with the exception of Accuride Corporation, which suffere d from weak demand for heavy wheels.

The Pinal Creek Group was dissolved and FMMI’s Pinal Creek Project (PCP) became the sole owner/operator of the Pinal Creek groundwater remediation systems and responsible for the Groundwater Remedial Action Plan described in the 1998 Consent Decree.

Copper prices hit unfamiliar lows in 1999, due to the lingering effec ts of the Asian financial crisis.

In late 2000, as copper prices showed signs of improvement, the compa ny proposed selling off Columbian Chemicals and PD Wire.

Company headquarters was relocated from Tempe to ten floors in the ne w 20-story, $78 million Phelps Dodge Tower in downtown Phoenix in November 2001.

In 2005, the company was planning to add a new copper processing plan t at its Morenci, Arizona, mine.

2006: Early in the year, the capping and revegetation of the BHP Miami Unit No.

The Phelps-Dodge Copper Rod Plant (owned by Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold since a 2007 merger) is located in Claypool, Arizona, between Globe and Miami.

2008: BHP has completed the removal and/or capping of numerous waste rock piles in the Copper Gulch drainage.

2009: FMMI, formerly Phelps Dodge, began construction on the Webster Lake Infill Project and the 27/28 Leach Dump Infill Project.

The work started in 2010 threatened to divert floodwaters towards the Pinal Creek Water Treatment Plant and potentially cause erosion and damage to embankments constructed by the Pinal Creek Group.

2019: BHP ceased mining operations and is continuing to develop reclamation (source control) plans for various facilities/properties within the Site.

2020: The results of large scale pilot tests in Live Oak Gulch were submitted to ADEQ by Freeport McMoRan (FMMI) in July and September.