Copper Welding

When Phelps Dodge Corp. set out with cash in its pockets to woo and master rich, independent United Verde Copper Co. of Arizona (TIME, Feb. 18), most people thought it was the only suitor. Last week it was learned that there was another. American Smelting & Refining, which Simon Guggenheim took over from his brother Daniel in 1919 and built into one of the world's biggest non-ferrous metal smelters & refiners, had bought a big block of stock in United Verde earlier than Phelps Dodge. Last week in Manhattan the two suitors rushed to a meeting of United Verde's 33 stockholders to learn who had won the bride.

The stockholders promptly adjourned for three hours. A director declared that on the last vote control was "up in the air." But during the interval American Smelting was apparently persuaded to sell out to its rival and withdraw. When the stockholders reassembled, four Phelps Dodge directors were elected directors of United Verde, and Louis Shattuck Gates, president of Phelps Dodge, became president of United Verde. With United Verde's annual production capacity of 68,000 tons to add to its own 168,000, Phelps Dodge will outrank Anaconda Copper in size, become second biggest U. S. copper company. Biggest: Kennecott.

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