Townsville suspension threatened
SYDNEY, Australia, March 24 (Reuters) -- Korea Zinc Co. Ltd. has threatened to suspend construction of
its Australian $1.2-billion zinc refinery in the north Queensland city of Townsville as a strike by about 1,000
workers entered its fourth week. The threat, issued as the big Korean group's president, Choi Chang-keun,
visits Townsville, raises the prospect of construction of the world's largest zinc refinery being mothballed.
The refinery is one of the biggest industrial investments ever planned for Australia by an Asian group. Korea
Zinc subsidiary Sun Metals Corp. has completed 57 percent of the refinery in a continuing weak market for
zinc. After more than 18 months of construction, the refinery was scheduled to come on-stream in late 1999.
Stage one, costing around A$680 million ($425 million), is planned to consume about 400,000 tonnes a year
of zinc concentrates, mainly sourced from northwest Queensland. These will be converted into 170,000
tonnes of zinc metal, mainly for export, and 325,000 tonnes of sulfuric acid as a by-product.
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