Gencor


Gencor Ltd was a South African based mining company. It was formed in 1980 after the merger of the General Mining and Finance Corporation and the Union Corporation. Parts of the company are now owned by Gold Fields and BHP.

History

Gencor has its origins as the General Mining and Finance Corporation formed in Johannesburg in December 1895. It would control the Witwatersrand mining business of George and Leopold Albu. It controlled mines such as Meyer and Charlton, Van Ryn Gold Mines Estate, New Steyn Estate Gold Mine and West Rand Consolidated Mines. After Sir George Werner Albu's death in 1963, a majority interest was purchased by Federale Mynbou Bepark. This purchase created the first Afrikaner owned mining corporation.
By 1979, GMFC had eventually bought out the Union Corporation, another gold mining corporation. In 1980, the merger of the two took place with the merged business called General Mining and Union Corporation and eventually called Gencor in 1989.
In 1994, South Africa's Gencor Ltd. acquired the mining division of Billiton excluding the downstream metal division. Billiton was divested from Gencor in 1997, amalgamating with Gold Fields of South Africa to become Gold Fields Limited in 1998. In 2001, Billiton would merge with BHP to become BHP Billiton and later just BHP.