[1] The company was founded in Melbourne on 9 September 1905 as the Zinc Corporation Limited, to exploit residual zinc concentrations with an estimated value of $12 million in the 6 million tons of mine tailings deposited from mining activities over the previous 20 years.
[2] Also involved was future U.S. president, but then a mining engineer working for Bewick, Moreing and Company,[3] Herbert Hoover, who inspected the tailing dumps in the group's investigations prior to formation of the company.
[3] They established concentrating mills at Broken Hill in 1905 and 1910, and in 1906 an associated sulphuric acid manufacturing plant whose first manager was (later Sir) H. W.
[10] Over time, the company built up substantial financial resources but failed to develop suitable new mining projects.
The resulting company, known as The Rio Tinto – Zinc Corporation (RTZ), and its main subsidiary, Conzinc Riotinto of Australia (CRA), would eventually become today's Rio Tinto Group.