Pechiney's Historical Archives

Administration centrale de Pechiney. Service des archives (s.d).

The Pechiney's historical archives, now Rio Tinto France (RTF), are mainly those of head offices and a number of subsidiaries (some of which are located abroad).
They were deposited before the 1990s and represent a total of around 1 linear km (out of 7.5 kml held in 2024).

A list of these historical holdings is available on request from IHA.

An Overview of The Pechiney Historical Archives

The Archival Division of Revelis-Historical Engineering Agency, a subsidiary of the IHA, was commissioned between 2020 and 2022 by Rio Tinto France (RTF, ex Pechiney) to complete the work of identifying the historical collections of Pechiney kept in the central archives of RTF.

Some key figures:

1 linear km of historical archives (out of 7,5 km preserved in 2024)
28 collections (including the Historical Collection created in the 1960s and 1970s to preserve a set of documents considered essential for the Company’s history)
approximately 174 subsidiaries and establishments concerned. In particular:

- The Anonymous Corporation for the Alp Coal Mines (MCA)

- The Camargue Salt Company (Salicam)

- The Maxéville-Studal Workshops for Prefabricated Construction (ACPM Studal)

- The Company for the study and Market Research on Light Bodywork (Carindal).

The aim is to bring these archives to the attention of RTF and interested researchers (historians, sociologists, architects, etc.), to reprocess then to donate or store part of these collections in public archive services (national or regional).

Archival holdings donated or deposited in public archive services

Only archival holdings donated or deposited through the IHA are listed.

Archives nationales du monde du travail (ANMT)

2017 21 - Administration centrale de Pechiney et de ses filiales - collections de registres hors format

2022 8 - Société du duralumin

2022 13 - Société générale du magnésium (SGM)

2022 14 - Les Métaux purs Pechiney Outreau (MPO)

2022 15 - Société française d’électrométallurgie (Sofrem)

Archives départementales des Hautes-Alpes

159 J - Usine d'aluminium de L'Argentière-la-Bessée

Archives départementales de l'Ariège

54 J - Fonds Pechiney relatif aux usines d'aluminium des Pyrénées (dont Auzat)

Archives départementales de l'Isère

285 J - Usine d'aluminium de Rioupéroux

379 J - Compagnie universelle d’acétylène et d’électrométallurgie (CUAEM)

Archives départementales de Savoie

39 J - Usine d'aluminium de La Praz

36 J - Usine d'aluminium de Calypso

37 J - Usine d'aluminium de La Saussaz

38 J - Usine d'aluminium de Venthon

Archives départementales des Bouches-du-Rhône

290 J 391-475 - Société anonyme des bauxites et alumines de Provence (Sabap) et Société des Bauxites du Midi (SBM) (1923-1992)

290 J - Société Aluminium Pechiney (AP). Usines de Gardanne, La Barasse, Mines de bauxite du Var et des Bouches-du-Rhône

290 J 476-494 - Union des bauxites (UB) et ses filiales (1917-1991)