No fee unless we recover compensation for your family Text size 833-4-ASBESTOS (833-427-2378) Free Case Review

Cape Asbestos

Cape Asbestos (the Cape Asbestos Company, later Cape plc and Cape Industries) was a British asbestos mining, milling, and manufacturing company that dominated the global crocidolite (blue asbestos) and amosite (brown asbestos) trade from South African mines for much of the twentieth century. The company supplied raw fiber and finished asbestos products worldwide and is at the center of major occupational and environmental disease litigation in the United Kingdom, South Africa, and elsewhere.

You don't need the product names or old records. No fee unless we recover compensation for your family.

Call 833-4-ASBESTOS Request a review

Origin

The company was incorporated in London in 1893 to exploit asbestos deposits in the Cape Province of South Africa, particularly the crocidolite fields of the Northern Cape and the amosite deposits of the Penge area in the Transvaal. It expanded into milling, manufacturing, and shipbuilding insulation through the early and mid-twentieth century before withdrawing from asbestos in the 1980s. According to the 1986 Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases, a compilation by plaintiffs' attorneys, the company acquired Marinite Ltd. as a wholly owned subsidiary.1

Significance in Asbestos Context

Cape was one of the principal sources of the crocidolite and amosite fibers most strongly linked to mesothelioma, and internal company documents have been used in litigation to show early knowledge of disease risks among workers, family members, and people living near the mines and mills. Patients with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or asbestos-related lung cancer who worked with Cape products (for example at the Cape Asbestos factory in Barking, East London, or at Acre Mill in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire) or who lived near South African mining communities such as Prieska or Penge, may have direct exposure histories tied to the company. Cape's conduct featured in landmark cases including Lubbe v Cape plc (House of Lords, 2000), which allowed South African claimants to sue in English courts, and continues to shape both UK and South African compensation schemes today.

Crocidolite, Amosite, Acre Mill, Turner & Newall, Lubbe v Cape plc, Prieska, Successor Liability, Bankruptcy Trust Claim, Corporate Conduct, Transvaal

Notes

  • If you or a family member worked at any Cape Asbestos site (notably Barking, Hebden Bridge/Acre Mill, Uxbridge, or South African mines and mills at Penge, Prieska, Koegas, or Kuruman), gather employment records, payslips, union cards, and any photographs showing the workplace.
  • Ask older relatives whether they lived near a Cape mine or mill, did laundry for a Cape worker, or played on mine tailings as children. Environmental and household exposures from Cape operations are well documented and can support a claim.
  • Tell your medical team specifically about any Cape connection; this can be relevant to fiber-type considerations (crocidolite/amosite) in pathology reports and to your prognosis discussion.
  • Compensation may be available through multiple routes, including the Cape plc asbestos-related disease scheme, UK statutory schemes (Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit, the 1979 and 2008 Acts), and South African trust arrangements established after the Lubbe litigation. Your legal team should screen all of these.
  • Preserve any product names, packaging, or shipping documents you encounter; brand names such as Asbestolux and Marinite were associated with Cape and can help establish product identification.

References

  1. Barbara J. Peters and George A. Peters, Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases: Medical, Legal, and Engineering Aspects, vol. 2 (New York: Garland Law Publishing, 1986), p. 159.

Asbestos products

10 products our documents name Cape Asbestos as making or selling. Each product's page says what the documents say about it, including its asbestos content.

Plants

Plants where asbestos products were made that the documents say Cape Asbestos ran.

Mines

Asbestos mines the documents name Cape Asbestos as running or owning.

In our library

2 documents in our library name Cape Asbestos, by collection.

Motley 1000 (1)

Other library documents (1)

In the Union Carbide documents

Cape Asbestos is named in 3 Union Carbide documents dated 1964 to 1972 (3 mentioned), from asbestos lawsuits over Union Carbide's Calidria asbestos. All are published in our collection.

Names in the documents

The spellings documents use for Cape Asbestos, OCR misreadings included, so a search for any of them finds this page: Cape Asbestos Company, Ltd · Cape Asbestos Company · Cape Asbestos Co. Ltd.

Where this comes from

This page brings together every document in our library that names Cape Asbestos, across collections. Titles and affiliations are taken from the documents themselves, and units and subsidiaries are grouped under the company they belong to.

Mentioned on this site

Cite this page

“Cape Asbestos.” AsbestosClaims.Law Library. https://asbestosclaims.law/library/organizations/cape-asbestos.

ACL Doc numbers and their short links never change. See how to cite the Library.

Talk with an asbestos lawyer

Start with what you remember, and we'll take it from there.

Call 833-4-ASBESTOS Request a free case review

This page is provided for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Every asbestos case turns on its own facts, exposure history, diagnosis, deadlines, available evidence, and applicable law. Reviewing this page does not create an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your specific situation, call 833-4-ASBESTOS for a free case review.