JCI or Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Co. Ltd. was founded in 1889 by the British entrepreneur
Barney Barnato. JCI was a major force in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
n mining for over 100 years. Using his investments in the
Kimberley diamond fields, particularly his 25% share in
De Beers
De Beers Group is an international corporation that specializes in diamond mining, diamond exploitation, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, large-scale alluvial and c ...
, Barnato foresaw the value of and invested in the potential of the
Witwatersrand
The Witwatersrand () (locally the Rand or, less commonly, the Reef) is a , north-facing scarp in South Africa. It consists of a hard, erosion-resistant quartzite metamorphic rock, over which several north-flowing rivers form waterfalls, which ...
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
mines. At first he bought small but rich mines near Germiston – the New Primrose, named after his daughter, and others in the same region.
In 1913 JCI bought the
Randfontein
Randfontein is a gold mining town in the West Rand, Gauteng, South Africa, west of Johannesburg. With the Witwatersrand gold rush in full swing, mining financier JB Robinson bought the farm Randfontein and, in 1889, floated the Randfontein Est ...
Estates Gold Mining Company, which was a fabulously rich mine, from Sir J.B. Robinson. At the peak of its production Randfontein was equipped with 600
stamp mill
A stamp mill (or stamp battery or stamping mill) is a type of mill machine that crushes material by pounding rather than grinding, either for further processing or for extraction of metallic ores. Breaking material down is a type of unit operatio ...
s, the roar of which could be heard in
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
. Randfontein Estates was an extraordinarily rich mining property, and in the 1950s was a pioneer of
uranium
Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...
production. During the 1930s Randfontein was the largest gold producer in South Africa, if not the world.
JCI was also involved with numerous mining ventures –
New State Mines at
Brakpan
Brakpan is a mining town in the Gauteng province of South Africa.
History
The name Brakpan comes from a small pan on a farm called Weltevreden, which was filled with very brackish water and was probably referred to as the "brakpan," and it was nea ...
,
Modder Deep Mines at
Benoni,
Van Dyk Mines at
Benoni. In the 1960s Randfontein was virtually closed down, and mining was developed at Western Areas on the other side of the shallow valley, but in the 1970s new deposits were discovered to the south of Randfontein and the Cooke Section was opened up in 1976. Cooke produced gold and uranium, the uranium being destined for the
Koeberg Nuclear Power Station
Koeberg nuclear power station is a nuclear power station in South Africa. It is currently the only one on the entire African continent. It is located 30 km north of Cape Town, near Melkbosstrand on the west coast of South Africa. Koeberg ...
fuel.
In addition to the gold mines, 25% of De Beers and a
controlling interest
A controlling interest is an ownership interest in a corporation with enough voting stock shares to prevail in any stockholders' motion. A majority of voting shares (over 50%) is always a controlling interest. When a party holds less than the majo ...
in
Rustenburg Platinum Holdings
Rustenburg (; , Afrikaans and Dutch: ''City of Rest'') is a city at the foot of the Magaliesberg mountain range. Rustenburg is the most populous city in North West province, South Africa (549,575 in 2011 and 626,522 in the 2016 census). In 2017 ...
, the world's largest
platinum
Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver".
Platinu ...
producer, JCI owned large industrial and property holdings, including the
Houghton Houghton may refer to:
Places
Australia
* Houghton, South Australia, a town near Adelaide
* Houghton Highway, the longest bridge in Australia, between Redcliffe and Brisbane in Queensland
* Houghton Island (Queensland)
Canada
* Houghton Townshi ...
Estate in northern Johannesburg, and substantial shareholdings in
South African Breweries
South African Breweries (officially The South African Breweries Limited, informally SAB) is a major brewery headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa and was a wholly owned subsidiary of SABMiller until its interests were sold to Anheuser-B ...
,
Toyota South Africa,
Lennings Industrial, etc., and was long a target of developers who lusted after the property holdings.
Anglo American Corporation
Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from, the Angles, England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term ''Anglosphere''. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people o ...
purchased a 52% holding in JCI, agreeing to protect the company against predatory takeovers, and this situation continued until 1994.
JCI installed a technically advanced Precious Metals Refinery at Rustenburg, which processed
Platinum Group
The platinum-group metals (abbreviated as the PGMs; alternatively, the platinoids, platinides, platidises, platinum group, platinum metals, platinum family or platinum-group elements (PGEs)) are six noble, precious metallic elements clustered to ...
metals totally in South Africa, and built a
ferrochrome
Ferrochrome, or ferrochromium (FeCr) is a type of ferroalloy, that is, an alloy of chromium and iron, generally containing 50 to 70% chromium by weight.
Ferrochrome is produced by electric arc carbothermic reduction of chromite. Most of the ...
smelter
Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including Silver mining#Ore processing, silver, iron-making, iron, copper extracti ...
at
Lydenburg
Lydenburg, officially known as Mashishing, is a town in Thaba Chweu Local Municipality, on the Mpumalanga highveld, South Africa. It is situated on the Sterkspruit/Dorps River tributary of the Lepelle River at the summit of the Long Tom Pass. ...
which was the first in South Africa to directly smelt
chromite
Chromite is a crystalline mineral composed primarily of iron(II) oxide and chromium(III) oxide compounds. It can be represented by the chemical formula of FeCr2O4. It is an oxide mineral belonging to the spinel group. The element magnesium can s ...
fine ore.
In the late 1980s JCI started development of an ultra deep mine to the south of Western Areas,
South Deep. The ownership of South Deep has now devolved to
Gold Fields
Gold Fields Limited (formerly The Gold Fields of South Africa) is one of the world's largest gold mining firms. Headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, the company is listed on both the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and the New York Sto ...
, and the deposit is still being developed as one of the largest low-grade gold deposits in the world.
In 1995 the majority shareholder, Anglo American Corp, decided to offer JCI to the new political dispensation in South Africa as a
Black Economic Empowerment
Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) is a policy of the South African government which aims to facilitate broader participation in the economy by black people. A form of affirmative action, it is intended especially to redress the inequalities creat ...
vehicle. A new Chairman,
Mzi Khumalo
Mzi Godfrey Khumalo (born 4 November 1955) is a South African businessman and mining entrepreneur.
Early life
Raised by a single mother, Khumalo grew up in KwaMashu‚ Durban. One of ten siblings, his father died before he was nine years old. ...
, took over the mining side, whilst the property and investment side was separated and morphed into
Johnnic Communications. The platinum interests were moved into
Anglo American Platinum, Amplats.
JCI was always at the forefront of technical development – trackless mining, ferrochrome processing (CMI, Lydenburg), computer control of process plants, treatment of refractory gold ores – to name a few areas where pioneering work was done.
Alleged crimes
It has been alleged by
Four Corners
The Four Corners is a region of the Southwestern United States consisting of the southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico. The Four Corners area ...
that
Brett Kebble, John Stratton, and others in their roles as Chairman and directors of the company respectively defrauded and conspired to defraud the company of some 7.6 billion rand. Additionally, it was alleged that John Stratton then procured Brett Kebble's murder, with which
Glenn Agliotti has been charged.
In August 2010, an American company Hemispherx was awarded $188 million Judgment Against JCI by Court in Miami, alleging that JCI wrongly obtained confidential information as part of an effort to devalue Hemispherx's stock price and gain control, according to court papers.
See also
* ''
MacDuff v JCI''.
References
{{reflist
External links
company page
Mining companies of South Africa
Coal companies of South Africa
Uranium mining companies of South Africa
Gold mining companies of South Africa
Platinum mining companies
Non-renewable resource companies established in 1889
1889 establishments in the Cape Colony