Permanente Metals
Permanente Metals Corporation is best known for having managed the Richmond Shipyards in Richmond, California, owned by one of industrialist Henry J. Kaiser's many corporations, and also engaged in related corporate activities. These four of the seven west coast Kaiser Shipyards were known for their construction of Liberty ships and later Victory ships.
The company was originally a major producer of magnesium during World War II and derives its name from the Permanente Creek in Santa Clara County, California where mining operations commenced in the early 1930s. To make use of its major product, powdered magnesium, PMC also developed and supplied an incendiary bomb mixture of magnesium powder, asphalt, gasoline and others components ; 17,000 short tons of goop-filled bombs were used in World War II. Permanente ranked 42nd among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts.
