Now that purchase of British Petroleum Corp.'s mineral interests has been completed by the RTZ Corp. of London, the name BP Minerals America will cease to exist and in its place will be Kennecott Corp., a name familiar to Utahns for the open pit copper-mining operation in southwest Salt Lake County.
"We see value in restoring the corporate name Kennecott, which has been synonymous with leadership in the U.S. mining industry for many decades," said Derek Birkin, chief executive officer of RTZ Corp.Frank Joklik, who has been president and chief executive officer of BP Minerals America, will hold the same positions with Kennecott Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of RTZ. Kennecott's headquarters will remain in Salt Lake City.
Sale of BP Minerals America, which has mining interests in various parts of the globe, has been in negotiations for several months, and earlier this year, RTZ officials were in Utah to examine the copper and gold operations at Kennecott Utah Copper, the name by which the operation was known during the BP Minerals tenure.
Kennecott Corp. employs about 3,500 people, with 2,350 employees located in the Salt Lake area. The Bingham Canyon Mine, Kennecott's flagship operation, is operated by the Utah Copper Division.
The corporation also operates the Ridgeway gold mine in South Carolina, the Alligator Ridge gold mine in Nevada and the Greens Creek silver, zinc and lead mine in Alaska. The company is developing two gold mines, in Barneys Canyon north of the the open pit copper mine and Rawhide in Nevada.
Kennecott also has an 80 percent interest in a large undeveloped gold prospect on Lihir Island in Papua New Guinea. The corporation also has other mineral interests in the United States and Canada and conducts exploration for base and other precious metals, chiefly in North America and Papua New Guinea.
Between 1986 and 1988, $400 million was invested to modernize facilities at the open pit copper operation, which has resulted in the annual production of 250,000 tons of copper, 350,000 ounces of gold, 2.5 million ounces of silver and 8 million pounds of molybdenum.