Rio Tinto Zinc Corp Plc

In some ways, it's still the good old days at U.S. Borax Inc., just like when Ronald Reagan hosted the company's "Death Valley Days" TV show in the 1960s and hawked Boraxo soap. It's been more than a century since U. S. Borax first mined ore from Death Valley and 67 years since it plumbed the depths of the Mojave Desert here in Boron, a tiny town 120 miles northeast of Los Angeles, to extract ore from one of the world's largest minable deposits of borax mineral.

The giant Rio Tinto Borax mine in Boron locked out about 540 hourly workers Sunday after the employee union refused to ratify a new labor contract. The lockout began at 7 a.m. as miners showed up outside the gates and were told they couldn't come in. Replacements were brought in to do their jobs. "It's obviously a drastic measure and I am well aware of the fact that this has very real consequences to our employees. It's not a bully tactic, but it's our only real alternative," said Dean Gehring, general manager of the mine.

The company that makes Dial soap plans to buy a resonant piece of California heritage--the cleaning products with the 20-mule-team logo so closely linked with the history of borax mining in Death Valley. Dial Corp. of Phoenix said Wednesday that it had agreed in principle to purchase the 20 Mule Team division of United States Borax & Chemical Corp. of Los Angeles, whose Inyo County mine in Boron remains the largest producer of industrial borates outside the Iron Curtain.

For more than half a century F.O. Roe, a former Army drill instructor with a steady gaze and a poker face, has watched the fortunes of this sun-blasted town ebb and flow. He's seen the 58 Freeway bypass and isolate the community, the steady exodus of the young as they seek their fortunes elsewhere and the increase in crime he attributes to newcomers from Los Angeles. Each blow has staggered the Kern County town, but none has knocked it off its feet -- until perhaps now. "I think if the cards are not played right on this, it could be what breaks the back of this little town and kills it," he said, as he sipped coffee in the back room of the Emporium, his general store.

RTZ Mining Shareholders OK Merger: Stockholders in London-based mining giant RTZ Mining Corp. overwhelmingly approved a $20-billion merger with its Australian subsidiary CRA in a move that will create the world's biggest mining company. RTZ-CRA will become a dual-listed company and will have common boards and unified management, as well as equivalent dividends and capital rights.

British Petroleum Co. began 1989 with two major deals Tuesday, saying it agreed to sell its huge mineral interests to the international mining group RTZ Corp. and would buy back a large chunk of its own shares from Kuwait. BP, the world's third-largest oil company and Britain's biggest, said it would sell the mining operations, minus BP Canada Inc., to RTZ for $4.4 billion or 2.4 billion pounds.

Alcoa Inc. and Aluminum Corp. of China say they plan to buy 12% of Rio Tinto in a deal valued at $14 billion. It is the biggest foreign investment yet by a Chinese company, Chinalco said Friday, and appears to be meant to block a bid for London-based Rio Tinto by Australian mining giant BHP Billiton. Alcoa said it contributed $1.2 billion to the deal.

BHP Billiton Ltd. formalized its unwelcome takeover bid for Rio Tinto today and upped the stakes with an all-stock offer worth $147.4 billion that would create a global mining monolith. London-based Rio Tinto, which rejected an initial approach from BHP Billiton last year as too low, said it would consider the new offer and urged its shareholders not to act hastily. BHP Billiton is offering 3.

In some ways, it's still the good old days at U.S. Borax Inc., just like when Ronald Reagan hosted the company's "Death Valley Days" TV show in the 1960s and hawked Boraxo soap. As it has for the past 67 years, the company day after day extracts borax from the depths of the Mojave Desert here in this tiny Kern County town 120 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

BHP Billiton Ltd. formalized its unwelcome takeover bid for Rio Tinto today and upped the stakes with an all-stock offer worth $147.4 billion that would create a global mining monolith. London-based Rio Tinto, which rejected an initial approach from BHP Billiton last year as too low, said it would consider the new offer and urged its shareholders not to act hastily. BHP Billiton is offering 3.

Alcoa Inc. and Aluminum Corp. of China say they plan to buy 12% of Rio Tinto in a deal valued at $14 billion. It is the biggest foreign investment yet by a Chinese company, Chinalco said Friday, and appears to be meant to block a bid for London-based Rio Tinto by Australian mining giant BHP Billiton. Alcoa said it contributed $1.2 billion to the deal.

Australian energy and mining giant BHP Billiton ended months of speculation Thursday when it confirmed it had approached rival miner Rio Tinto about a potential merger. Rio Tinto rejected the proposal -- worth $113 billion, according to deal tracker Dealogic -- which could turn into a protracted takeover battle. BHP Billiton said it wrote twice to London-based Rio Tinto and "intends to continue to seek an opportunity to meet and discuss its proposal with Rio Tinto."

Mining giant Rio Tinto has offered to buy Canadian aluminum company Alcan Inc. for $38.1 billion in cash, the companies said Thursday, in a friendly takeover that tops a hostile bid by Pittsburgh-based Alcoa Inc. The bid exceeds a $28-billion offer of cash and stock from Alcoa that Alcan's board rejected in May, and would create the world's largest aluminum company. Alcoa withdrew its offer Thursday after being outbid.

RTZ Mining Shareholders OK Merger: Stockholders in London-based mining giant RTZ Mining Corp. overwhelmingly approved a $20-billion merger with its Australian subsidiary CRA in a move that will create the world's biggest mining company. RTZ-CRA will become a dual-listed company and will have common boards and unified management, as well as equivalent dividends and capital rights.

In some ways, it's still the good old days at U.S. Borax Inc., just like when Ronald Reagan hosted the company's "Death Valley Days" TV show in the 1960s and hawked Boraxo soap. As it has for the past 67 years, the company day after day extracts borax from the depths of the Mojave Desert here in this tiny Kern County town 120 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

Australian energy and mining giant BHP Billiton ended months of speculation Thursday when it confirmed it had approached rival miner Rio Tinto about a potential merger. Rio Tinto rejected the proposal -- worth $113 billion, according to deal tracker Dealogic -- which could turn into a protracted takeover battle. BHP Billiton said it wrote twice to London-based Rio Tinto and "intends to continue to seek an opportunity to meet and discuss its proposal with Rio Tinto."

For more than half a century F.O. Roe, a former Army drill instructor with a steady gaze and a poker face, has watched the fortunes of this sun-blasted town ebb and flow. He's seen the 58 Freeway bypass and isolate the community, the steady exodus of the young as they seek their fortunes elsewhere and the increase in crime he attributes to newcomers from Los Angeles. Each blow has staggered the Kern County town, but none has knocked it off its feet -- until perhaps now. "I think if the cards are not played right on this, it could be what breaks the back of this little town and kills it," he said, as he sipped coffee in the back room of the Emporium, his general store.

In some ways, it's still the good old days at U.S. Borax Inc., just like when Ronald Reagan hosted the company's "Death Valley Days" TV show in the 1960s and hawked Boraxo soap. It's been more than a century since U. S. Borax first mined ore from Death Valley and 67 years since it plumbed the depths of the Mojave Desert here in Boron, a tiny town 120 miles northeast of Los Angeles, to extract ore from one of the world's largest minable deposits of borax mineral.

British Petroleum Co. began 1989 with two major deals Tuesday, saying it agreed to sell its huge mineral interests to the international mining group RTZ Corp. and would buy back a large chunk of its own shares from Kuwait. BP, the world's third-largest oil company and Britain's biggest, said it would sell the mining operations, minus BP Canada Inc., to RTZ for $4.4 billion or 2.4 billion pounds.