Newmont Corporation is an American gold mining company based in Greenwood Village, Colorado. It is the world's largest gold mining corporation. Incorporated in 1921, it owns gold mines in Nevada, Colorado, Ontario, Quebec, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Australia, Ghana, Argentina, Peru, and Suriname. In addition to gold, Newmont mines copper, silver, zinc and lead. Newmont has approximately 31,600 employees and contractors worldwide, and is the only gold company in the Standard & Poor's 500 stock market index. Newmont is spending $500 million on renewable energy projects through 2025 towards its commitment of reducing carbon emissions by 30% by 2030. Operations History Early years The Newmont Company was founded in 1916 in New York by Colonel William Boyce Thompson as a holding company to invest in Worldwide mineral, oil, and related companies. According to company lore, the name "Newmont" is a portmanteau "New York" and "Montana", reflecting where Thompson made his fortune and where he grew up. Newmont made its first major gold investment in 1917, with a founding 25 percent in the Anglo American Corporation of South Africa. Four years later, in 1921, the Newmont Company reincorporated as the Newmont Corporation. In 1929, Newmont became a mining company with its first gold product in by acquiring California's Empire Star Mine. By 1939, Newmont was operating 12 gold mines in North America. The company acquired interests overseas. For decades around the middle of the 20th century, Newmont had a controlling interest in the Tsumeb mine in Namibia and in the O'Okiep Copper Company in Namaqualand, South Africa. Beginning in 1925, Newmont acquired interests in a Texas oil field. Eventually, Newmont's oil interests included more than 70 blocks in the Louisiana, Gulf of Mexico area and oil and gas production in the North Sea. Fred Searls became president in 1947, after serving as the company's exploration geologist. Searls retired in 1954, and Plato Malozemoff took over as president. Newmont began mining at Carlin, Nevada, in 1965. The "Carlin Trend" or "Carlin Unconformity" is the largest gold discovery in North America during the 20th century. In 1971 Newmont began heap leaching low grade ores there. Major growth In the 1980s, Newmont thwarted five takeover bids – from Consolidated Gold Fields (ConsGold), T. Boone Pickens, Minorco, Hanson Industries and Sir James Goldsmith – who sought to break Newmont apart and sell its assets to increase shareholder value. In 1987, defending against a $6.3 billion