Coronet Industries

Coronet Industries Incorporated is a chemical company that operated a plant converting phosphate to animal feed located in Hillsborough County just four miles outside of Plant City, Florida. The plant operated for almost 100 years under several corporate ownerships before closing in March 2004 in the midst of an investigation by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the State of Florida, and the Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County.

The company was originally organized as the Coronet Phosphate Company in 1906. The processing plant near Plant City was constructed and began mining operations in 1908. The phosphate was mined from the surrounding land holdings by a combination of dragline removal of the soil above the phosphate deposits (overburden) and hydraulic pressure stripping. The raw phosphate material was then transported to the processing plant where it was dried and stored for later shipment. The phosphate deposits in the nearby area were generally mined out by the 1920s, and mining operations shifted to the Hopewell area about 15 miles south of Plant City. In 1913 The Coronet Company purchased the Pembroke Mine facility, located between Fort Meade and Bartow in Polk County, from the French company, Compagnie Generale des Phosphates de la Florida. In addition to the Pembroke Mine, the Coronet Company operated mining facilities at a number of other sites it acquired in Hillsborough and Polk Counties. Operations at the main Plant City plant consisted solely of the drying of the rock material and its shipment to users by rail until 1945 when the plant was expanded to allow institution of a defluorinating process involving a chemical treatment of the rock. Deluorination allowed the conversion of phosphate to an animal feed supplement, Coronet Defluorinated Phosphate (CDP), which became the principal product of the company in later years.

Construction at the original plant site, Coronet Village, included approximately 75 houses for both white and black plant and mine employees. Because public roads and highways were somewhat primitive and private automobiles were not very common, having employees live near to the processing plant was desirable. The Pembroke Mine also had a fairly extensive employee housing village. Less extensive employee housing facilities were also constructed at the other mining sites. Both the Coronet and Pembroke Village sites were generally self-contained small towns with a company store, recreation facilities, and water and sewage infrastructure. These small self-supporting company villages were fairly common in the Florida phosphate industry from the early 1900s until about 1960.

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