Asarco warns its U.S. zinc workers mines may shut
money.iwon.com
Monday October 8, 11:35 AM EDT
NEW YORK, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Asarco Inc. a U.S. unit of metals producer Grupo Mexico SA (GXOb), said Monday it has notified 363 workers of possible near-term layoffs and production cuts at three Tennessee zinc mines due to low world zinc prices.
A company spokesman told Reuters that Asarco on October 1 issued Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notices to employees at the Coy and Immel mines and the Young mine and mill near Knoxville.
Asarco is required by law to give workers a 60-day advance warning of potential layoffs, and the notification was done partly as a formality, although production cuts may come before then, company spokesman Jerry Cooper said. "There haven't been any production changes yet," he said in a phone interview.
Asarco issued the warnings as a result of the sharp downturn in global zinc prices this year, said Cooper. Zinc, trading at about 35 cents a pound on the London Metal Exchange this week, slumped to its lowest prices since the late 1980s.
Asarco is now currently weighing three options at the zinc mines, ranging from complete suspension of output to partial curtailment to no action at all, Cooper said. The Coy mine, located near Jefferson City, Tennessee, processes about 1,250 tons of ore a day and produces zinc in concentrates.
Immel, in Mascot, mines about 2,100 tons of ore a day, while the Young mine in Strawberry Plains processes roughly 4,600 tons daily. The Young mill processes 7,600 tons a day.
A separate Asarco zinc mine in Tennessee, Newmarket, was closed in 1996, Cooper said. |
