Anglo american timeline.

COURTESY OF ANGLO AMERICAN

* 1917 Anglo American Corp. founded by Sir Ernest Oppenheimer to explore gold mining in the East Rand, part of the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Area of South Africa. Seed money for the corporation was raised from British and American sources resulting in the name. The company concentrated on gold mining in the 1920s to the 1930s. Anglo American becomes the major shareholder in De Beers, the South African diamond mining company.

* 1928 Anglo American enters into copper mining in Zambia and begins an involvement in platinum mining in South Africa.

* 1929 Oppenheimer assumes chairmanship of De Beers.

* 1920s to 1930s The company helps set up AECI (African Explosives and Chemical Industries)in which the company sold its majority stake in 2001, and Boart Products, which developed new techniques using industrial diamonds in drilling equipment for gold mining. New subsidiary called South African Coal Estates is created.

* 1940s to 1950s Intensive mining in the Free State goldfields and the Vaal Reefs mine in South Africa, and development of the Western Deep Levels.

* 1948 The National Party was elected to power, and intensified the implementation of the racial segregation that had begun under British rule. The Nationalist Government added to the British list of segregationist laws, and the system of segregation became known collectively as apartheid.

* 1957 Sir Ernest Oppenheimer dies. His son, Harry, an Opposition Member of the British Parliament, becomes head of the company.

* 1961 Acquires an interest in Canada's Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co.

* 1960s The Group's increasing array of industrial assets were consolidated into the Anglo American Industrial Corp. (AMIC) and by the Company's entry to the steel industry through the acquisition of Scaw Metals and the development of the innovative Highveld Process for producing steel.

* 1967 With the founding of the Mondi Group, the company begins timber, pulp and paper operations in South Africa, where, post 1984, it became one of the two major players and, subsequently, in the European packaging sector.

* 1969 to 1970 Anglo's copper mines in Zambia are nationalized.

* 1970s Minerals and Resources Corp. (later Minorco)is begun in Latin American.

* 1975 Anglo American consolidates its eight coal in South Africa under Amcoal (later Anglo Coal). The Richards Bay Coal Terminal that turns South Africa into a major coal exporter was a joint venture by the major coal...