The South African mining house General Mining and Finance Corporation was founded in 1887 by George and Leopold Albu, who had first been on the diamond mines at Kimberley in 1877 and came to Johannesburg in pursuit of gold ten years later. In 1963 General Mining joined with Federale Mynbou, a new Afrikaans mining group, and in 1980 merged with Union Corporation to form Gencor.