ASARCO employees

Abstract

The Arkansas Valley Smelting Company was formed in 1882 by a group of mining and smelting industrialists. The Company's smelter became the largest smelter in Leadville and was known as the Arkansas Valley smelter or “AV works.” By the 1890s the AV smelter, now a subsidiary of the Consolidated Kansas City Smelting and Refining Company, was upgraded and enlarged but facing strong competition from smelters on the plains. The American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO) was formed in 1899 by a syndicate of the major US smelting companies. The Company consolidated its Leadville operations at the AV smelter by closing its other plants there; the AV smelter became ASARCO's most important Colorado facility. The smelter operated through labor unrest and problems with ore shipments but after 1907 rarely worked at full capacity. With the closure of the Durango smelter in 1930 it was the only remaining smelter in Colorado. The AV works was finally closed in 1961.