Phosphate mining in Banaba and Nauru

Denson, according to legend, had planned on making children's marbles from it but, as fate would have it, it ended up as a door stop in the company's Sydney office.

[1] From 1919 the responsibility for the welfare of the people of Nauru and Banaba, the restoring of land and water resources lost by mining operations and compensation for environmental damage to the islands was under the control of the governments of United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia.

[3] In June 1948, about 1,100 Gilbertese employed on Ocean Island refused to work, with the key demand of the strikers was for higher wages of £10 a month to meet the increased price of goods sold in the trade store.

This purchase brought an economic boost to the Republic, as revenues from the mining operations are estimated to have been A$100–120 million annually since independence through virtual resource exhaustion in the early 1990s.

[7] One apparently successful development project was in 1988, whereby the Royalty Trust purchased 600 acres (2.4 km2) of vacant, residentially zoned land near Portland, Oregon.

Purchased for $16 million from Homer Williams and called Forest Heights, it was controlled by the Nauru trust until 75% of the allotments were sold, when the homeowners association took over.