Already a subscriber?Orica’s chief executive and chairman admit that the mining services company is hardly a household name, despite celebrating 150 years on Thursday night as one of the country’s longest-surviving businesses.
“Orica pretty much followed the development of the Australian economy,” chairman and former CEO Malcolm Broomhead tellsfrom Orica House in Melbourne. Completed in 1958, the building is considered to be Australia’s first skyscraper and paved the way for the modern look our cities enjoy today. Dulux paint was part of BALM Paint, which changed its name to Dulux in 1971, owned by ICI, which became Orica.
ICI ANZ was incorporated in 1928 to co-ordinate ICI’s Australasian interests and in 1971, became ICI Australia, before becoming Orica in 1998. In February, Orica paid $US640 million for the US chemical company Cyanco, a sodium cyanide business with plants in Nevada and Texas, which will combine with its existing sodium cyanide factory in Queensland to be the biggest producer globally. Sodium cyanide is used in mining to extract gold from ore. in December for the sensors, software and data delivery group Terra Insights, after acquiring mining software business Axis Mining Technology for $350 million in 2022.