The expansion of global frontiers of extraction depended on the work of geologists. Yet who were these geologists and what did geologists do that was valuable to business? To answer these questions, my paper examines the emergence of the Caribbean bauxite frontier. Between 1950 and 1975, the Caribbean produced more bauxite—the raw material required to produce aluminum—than any other region in the world. I focus on the 1940s, when four North American corporations—Reynolds Metals Company, Alcan, Alcoa, and Kaiser Aluminum—hired more than a dozen geologists to locate new deposits of bauxite on the islands of Hispaniola, Jamaica and Cuba.
Drawing on corporate records and state archives in the Caribbean, the U.S., and the U.K., I consider the work geologists did for corporations and the social and political ties they brought to their employers. In the field, geologists provided detailed assessments of labor conditions; mapped the location and quality of mineral deposits; assessed the difficulty of land acquisition; hired workers to acquire samples to be sent for analysis in overseas laboratories; and negotiated land and mineral rights. This work reduced the risk of investment and laid the foundation for future extraction.
The valuable social connections geologists brought to corporations were multiple. Geologists working at elite universities carried the prestige of these institutions into the field, but also granted corporations access to cutting-edge university laboratories and equipment. Geologists who had worked for the United States Geological Survey came with political connections to the Interior Department in Washington, which U.S. corporations leveraged to legitimize overseas mining operations. Many geologists thus operated at the nexus of the state, the university, and the corporation. I aim to reflect broadly on the business of geology in the history of twentieth century U.S. capitalism.