Consolidated Gold Fields in Australia: The Rise and decline of a British Mining House, 1926–1998 by Robert Porter

PART ONE: 
CONTEXT—
 CONSOLIDATED 
GOLD FIELDS

1
 THE CONSOLIDATED 
GOLD FIELDS OF 
SOUTH AFRICA
 A company formed by the young, avowed British imperialist Cecil John 
Rhodes and his business partner Charles Dunell Rudd, with interests in the 
diamond mines of the Kimberley and gold mining in the Witwatersrand, 
became one of the foremost British mining-finance companies in the 
twentieth century. Emanating from South Africa, the company that 
Rhodes and Rudd founded, The Gold Fields of South Africa, was 
registered in London in 1887. In 1892, through aggregation with three 
other South African mining companies, it became The Consolidated 
Gold Fields of South Africa, listed on the London Stock Exchange. Apart 
from its South African and broader international interests, the company, 
through subsequent forms, associated companies and direct investments, 
played an influential role in Australia’s mining history. It played a major 
role in the revitalisation of the Western Australian gold industry in the 
1930s and the recommencement of mining operations at an important 
lead and zinc mine in New South Wales; it also made investments in gold 
mining in New Guinea and a financial and technical contribution to the 
formation of Western Mining Corporation in association with members 
of the Collins House Group of companies.

Consolidated Gold Fields in Australia: The Rise and decline of a British Mining House, 1926–1998 by Robert Porter