Vanderbilt Minerals is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Connecticut-based R.T. Vanderbilt Company, a privately held manufacturer and distributor of minerals for the petroleum, rubber, plastics, paint, pharmaceutical, ceramic, agricultural, personal care, and household industries.[1]
The company got its start in 1916 when Robert Thurlow Vanderbilt opened an office on East 42nd Street in New York City. Armed with $1,000, a $24,000 family loan, and a contract to sell clay to the papermaking industry, Vanderbilt leveraged his skills to offer other products to diverse applications. He introduced mineral fillers for the rubber industry and followed that with the establishment of Vanderbilt Research Laboratories to develop new uses for clay and other minerals. The company’s products were used as extender pigments in coatings and as fillers for primers and paints, and its discoveries changed the way that paper was pigmented, making it whiter and brighter.[1]
In the 1930s the company began working with plastics, particularly with vinyls, which it anticipated would become useful alternatives to rubber. In 1940 the company purchased Gouverneur Talc mine, and in 1945 almost all Vanderbilt products were diverted into items for the war effort. In 1955, the company established the Gouverneur Mineral Division, a mining and milling operation in the Gouverneur district of New York State in St. Lawrence County.[1] Shortly after, talc workers began reporting breathing problems and seeking compensation for illnesses including talcosis and malignant mesothelioma. In 1972, against the objections of Vanderbilt officials, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration began to require that the tremolite talc being mined at the Gouverneur site be treated as if it were asbestos, and the Mine Safety and Health Administration agreed.[2]
In 1974, the Vanderbilt Company purchased an adjacent talc mine site from International Talc, and shortly thereafter the company faced compensation suits from International Talc’s former employees seeking disability assistance. A $1,122,248 settlement was negotiated.[2]
]Vanderbilt continued mining and selling talc until 2008, when it ceased production and sold off the last of its inventory, in part because, over the past several decades, thousands of lawsuits had been filed against the company in jurisdictions across the United States. All claimed that talc and silica mined and sold by the company contained asbestos and led to them contracting asbestos-related diseases including malignant mesothelioma, asbestos-related lung cancer, and asbestosis.[3]
Today, R.T. Vanderbilt Holding Company, Inc. is a world leader in supplying industry with minerals, as well as a privately held manufacturer and distributor that supplies a wide range of products to a variety of industries. Its subsidiaries include chemical manufacturing facilities, mining and milling facilities, and technical and marketing development services with international clients.[1]