Phelps Dodge - History

History

Initially, Phelps Dodge operated an import-export trade business that shipped U.S.-grown cotton to England in exchange for tin, iron, copper and other metals essential for growth and development of the new American nation.

As time went on, the company began its own mining operations as the western United States frontier expanded, and its mineral wealth, especially copper, started being discovered. The company focused largely on providing copper wire and cables to industry that became in high demand as the Industrial Revolution took hold. As the company diversified, it began investing in new railroads, essential in the company’s efforts to establish itself in the west, especially copper-rich Arizona, and to transport products to and from its markets on the eastern/northeastern shores. During the late 19th century, in concert with its metal interests, Phelps Dodge Corporation became one of the largest producers of lumber and lumber products in the United States. In Tombstone, Arizona during 1900 E. B. Gage, Frank Murphy, and William Staunton consolidated their various mining properties into a single entity, the Tombstone Consolidated Mines Company. They re-started efforts to drain mines that had filled with water, laid a rail spur into town, and re-commenced mining. They experienced some success until the pumps failed in 1909. The new company filed for bankruptcy and the Phelps-Dodge Corporation corporation acquired its claims.

The company became notorious for its anti-union tactics, primarily for its kidnapping of nearly 1,300 striking miners and the seizure of the telegraph and telephone lines in the town of Bisbee, Arizona, during the Bisbee Deportation in 1917.

In South America, the company had several very large copper mining operations in Chile and Peru. In the Congo, Phelps Dodge Corporation was the majority owner and operator of the Tenke Fungurume project, generally considered to be the world's largest undeveloped copper/cobalt project.

A subsidiary of Phelps Dodge Corporation, Climax Molybdenum, is the largest primary producer of molybdenum in the world. At the Henderson mine west of Empire, Colorado, Climax Molybdenum has produced more than 160 million tons of ore and 770 million pounds of molybdenum since the mine opened in 1976. Climax Molybdenum also owns the inactive Climax molybdenum mine, north of Leadville, Colorado.

The historic Phelps Dodge General Office Building in Bisbee, Arizona was declared a National Historic Landmark of the U.S. in 1983.

The Phelps Dodge copper mine at Morenci, Arizona was the site of a violent strike from 1983 to 1986, culminating in one of the largest union decertifications in American labor history.

The company employed more than 13,500 people worldwide.