Metals Reserve Company

The Metals Reserve Company was a U.S. government-owned corporation created during World War II to procure, stockpile, and distribute strategic raw materials, including asbestos, for the war effort. It operated as a subsidiary of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and contracted with mines, importers, and manufacturers to ensure a steady supply of materials deemed essential to national defense. Its asbestos purchases and allocations helped sustain wartime shipbuilding, insulation, and military manufacturing programs.

Origin

The Metals Reserve Company was chartered in June 1940 under authority of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation Act, as the U.S. prepared for likely involvement in World War II. It was dissolved in 1945 after the war, with its functions transferred to other federal agencies. Records of its contracts are held primarily in the National Archives.

Significance in Asbestos Context

For patients whose exposure traces to WWII-era shipyards, naval vessels, defense plants, or government-contracted manufacturers, the Metals Reserve Company is part of the paper trail that can document where asbestos came from and who handled it. Its purchasing and allocation records can help identify which mines (including Canadian chrysotile suppliers and South African amphibole sources) fed which American manufacturers, and which products went to which shipyards or military installations. This historical record matters because it can support product identification and exposure history in cases involving Navy veterans, merchant mariners, and civilian shipyard workers whose direct employment records are incomplete. It also undercuts later industry claims of ignorance: federal contracting and stockpiling files show that asbestos sourcing and use were closely tracked at the government level during and after the war.

Example Sentence

The historian retained by the legal team used Metals Reserve Company allocation records to show that the asbestos insulation installed on the destroyer where the patient served as a young sailor came from a specific Quebec chrysotile mine.

Related Terms

Reconstruction Finance Corporation, Government Contractor Defense, Shipyard Exposure, Provenance Analysis, Navy Veterans Asbestos Exposure, Strategic Materials Stockpile

Notes

• If your exposure history includes WWII-era shipyard work, Navy service, or defense manufacturing, tell your legal team. Historical records like Metals Reserve Company files may help reconstruct where the asbestos came from.
• Preserve any military service records (DD-214), ship assignment histories, and civilian shipyard employment documents; these connect a worker to specific vessels and yards that can then be tied to documented asbestos shipments.
• Ask whether your case team uses an industrial historian or archivist; National Archives holdings on wartime materials procurement are specialized and not part of standard discovery.
• This history is most relevant for mesothelioma and asbestosis cases with exposures dating from roughly 1940 through the 1950s, when wartime stockpiles continued to be drawn down.