PACIFIC COAST BORAX COMPANY

The 'Pacific Coast Borax Company' was a United States mining company founded in 1890 by the American borax magnate Francis Marion Smith. The company established and aggressively developed the famous ''20 Mule Team Borax'' trademark in order to promote the sale of its product. The name derived from the twenty mule teams that were used to transport borax out of Death Valley in the 1880s.
The first reinforced concrete building constructed in the United States was the Pacific Coast Borax Company's refinery in Alameda, California, built in 1893.
In 1956, the Pacific Coast Borax Company merged with United States Potash Corporation to form 'U.S. Borax', which itself was acquired by Rio Tinto Group in 1967. As a wholly owned subsidiary, the company now is called Rio Tinto Minerals and continues to supply nearly half the world's borates. It operates the largest open-pit mine in California in the company town of Boron.

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Reference

Reference

★ Hildebrand, G.H. (1982). ''Borax Pioneer: Francis Marion Smith.'' San Diego: Howell-North Books. (ISBN 0-8310-7148-6)