126 CFP/Total/Cie Francaise des petroles SA Founded in 1924 at the request of the French government by a group of French industrialists and bankers led by Ernest Mercier, CFP's origins are to be found in the Turkish Petroleum company (later the Iraq Petroleum Co). The French government acquired a 25% stake in CFP in 1930, later expanding it to 35% (with 40% of the voting rights). After the second world war, a large marketing network was established, first in the French colonies of Africa, then France and Europe. In 1954, the Total brand name was adopted for all the group's products and there was expansion into other countries. Over the next twelve years CFP/Total acquired petrochemical and chemical interests and, in the early 1970s, diversified into uranium, coal mining and solar energy. In 1974 it acquired Hutchinson-Mapa, France's largest producer of industrial rubber, then in 1977 Societe Rousselot, the largest domestic producer of glues and adhesives, and one of the world's largest manufacturers of gelatine (1).
As France's largest oil group, the CFP/Total mini-empire has colonies in numerous countries; not only virtually all French possessions and ex-possessions, but the USA, Canada (where, over a period of ten years, it transformed itself from a relatively speculative frontier-orientated company into a much larger and integrated concern) (2), throughout Europe, Japan, Indonesia, the North Sea, South Africa, and (of course) the Middle East (1).
It can become confusing - and not the least for this author - trying to determine exactly which company in the CFP group controls which particular project. By and large the term Total attaches to ventures in which CFP/Total has an interest exceeding 50%, but it can also be used in the case of companies eligible for consolidation, in which CFP has a lower interest (1).
In the early 1980s TCM (Total Compagnie Miniere) took over all of the company's uranium interests (3), though Minatome, which CFP acquired fully in 1982, continues to be the company name most closely associated with certain projects, notably in Australia.
A re-commitment to uranium, made by CFP/Total in 1984, was all the more remarkable for following a huge decline in the group's revenues (4) and the restructuring of its oil business (5). Not only did CFP secure full control over Minatome, it also bought up Dong-Trieu and a little later expanded its French explorations, with the award of a prospect permit in the Vienne and Haute-Vienne regions of western France (6).
By early 1985, CFP had announced plans to bring into production two new French uranium mines (at Loges and Bernadan, in the Massif Central) to replace two other mines in the same area nearing exhaustion (3), and to look for a mine in the USA. (In the late 1970s CFP had acquired a uranium lease on the Spokane native American reservation in Washington State, which does not appear to have proceeded any further) (7).
Currently, TCM operates several uranium mines in central and southern France producing roughly 500 tonnes/year in concentrates (about 15% of French production). It has permits to explore about 4,000km2 of French territory, primarily in the Massif Central, but also Brittany, Veron, and the southern Vosges. Its prime overseas interest is the 10% holding in Rossing uranium which allowed it to purchase between 500 and 1000 tonnes/year until 1986. Most TCM sales are on a long-term contract basis, at prices slightly under US$30 lb. In the long term, TCM "expects the uranium market to improve" and plans to double its share of the western world's output from 3% to 6%, with export sales increasing from the 1985 proportion of 10% of current total production to around 50% by 1995 (3).
In early 1985, CFP's Minatco subsidiary also bought into very promising uranium deposits at Wollaston Lake, Saskatchewan, owned by Inco and Canadian Occidental Petroleum (8).
In 1979, CFP/Total bought 20% in a solar energy venture set up with the CEA (9).
It also has an interest in Inspiration Coal, a US producer jointly owned by Minorco (AAC) and Hudbay, and is involved with another South African company, JCI, with which it entered an agreement in 1981, to export coal to France from the apartheid state (10).
In 1988, Total Resources (Canada) Ltd wholly owned by CFP/Total and CFP's 55% subsidiary Total Erickson - made an offer for the entire common stock of Getty Resources, a Canadian gold producer whose principal asset is a 49% stake in the Tundra gold mine, Nevada (51 % owned by Noranda) (11). Getty Resources is not to be confused with Getty Oil or Getty Mining (qv).
Total Minerals Corp has acquired the West Cole uranium solution mining project, formerly operated by Tenneco in southern Texas (12) . Total Energold Corp not only has extensive gold interests in deposits and mines in several Canadian provinces - British Columbia, North west Territories (with Noranda), the Yukon (with Agip Resources), and Ontario - but through its wholly-owned subsidiary Sovereign Explorations Inc has begun exploration in the USA, in Nevada, Montana and Idaho (13), near Gold Star (14).
The company's 1988 uranium production was 495 tonnes uranium metal comprising 15% of total French production (13). Its total mining permits amounted to 1667 square kilometres of exploration, 18 square kilometres of mining and 127 square kilometres of mining concessions in mainland France (13). Production at its French mines in the last few years (from Bernardan, Gouzon, Loges and Bertholene mines) has varied from 623 tonnes in 1986 to 820 tonnes (uranium oxide) in 1988. With proven reserves of more than 8000 tonnes, the company claims it can more than replace what it has extracted (15) and maintain production at least until 2000 AD (16).
In 1987, Total reopened the West Cole uranium project in Texas, with a nominal capacity of 100 tonnes: production in 1988 was 90 tonnes. With reserves of 550 tonnes contained uranium, life for this small mine is set at approximately five years (16).
Another US uranium mine, the Alta Mesa, is due for a start-up in 1992, as a solution mine with a capacity of 100 tonnes. Containing reserves of 4500 tonnes, the life of this mine has been put at around 45 years (16).
In recent years the company's Manyingee project (Total Mining Australia 82%, UG 8%, Triako Resources 10%), in the West Pilbara region of Western Australia, has been the subject of heated criticism within the country. The company carried out trial mining after its EPA assessment in 1983 had to be re-submitted to the licensing authority (17). Less than 500kg of uranium oxide was extracted during this trial period and stored on-site (17, 18).
SOURCE: "The Gulliver File - Mines, people and land: a global battleground" by Roger Moody.
Published in 1992 by Minewatch, 218 Liverpool Road, London Nl ILE, UK, and WISE-Glen Aplin, Po Box 87, Glen Aplin Q 4381, Australia.
Distribution: Sales to bookshops: Pluto Press, 345 Archway Road, London N 6 5AA, UK. Sales to the mining industry and libraries: Uitgeverij Jan van Arkel, A. Numankade 17, 357t KP Utrecht, the Netherlands.
***Note to electronic texts: selections from Minewatch are available to researchers on corporate and mining affairs. However, the detailed REFERENCES and CHARTS in the print version are not available in electronic form. You are encouraged to order the complete book from the sources above.***
All rights reserved. © Minewatch, 1992.
Page last updated December 26, 1997.
| Back to the Gulliver Archives | or | Back to the Ben Lomond Page |
Copyright © SEA-US 1997 | ||