HudBay Minerals Inc. said this morning it expects to close its copper smelter in Flin Flon, Manitoba before July 1, 2010, and its copper refinery in White Pine, Michigan shortly thereafter.
HudBay’s Flin Flon copper smelter is part of an integrated complex. Photo courtesy of Brian Pieters Photography
The financial impact of the smelter closure on the company will be minimal, it added, as the processing costs from the sale of concentrates are expected to be similar.
Further, the smelter is part of an integrated complex, and reclamation costs, which have been fully accounted for on the company’s balance sheet, only occur when the entire Flin Flon metallurgical complex ultimately shuts down.
HudBay said it anticipates manpower reductions as a result of the closure to be about 225 in Flin Flon and 65 at the White Pine Copper Refinery.
“Today’s business realities, combined with the age of the plant and regulatory changes, make continued operation of this plant impractical and uneconomic. We are strongly positioned post-smelter closure with our metallurgical facilities, the 777 and Trout Lake mines and an impressive project pipeline, including Fenix and Lalor.”
“We will work closely with our employees, unions and affected local, provincial and state governments, as well as other stakeholders, to mitigate the impact of the closures,” added Tom A. Goodman, senior vice president, operations.
Zinc business still fully integrated
After the closures, HudBay will remain a fully integrated zinc producer with its state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly zinc processing facilities in Flin Flon and Brampton.”
Particulate and sulfur dioxide emissions to the atmosphere will be essentially eliminated from the Flin Flon operations once the smelter is closed and the integrated metals facilities will be among the most environmentally friendly in North America in this regard, HudBay said.
HudBay is building a filtration plant that will enable the company to ship its copper concentrate off-shore, if necessary. HudBay said it expects to have sales arrangements for its copper concentrate in place by the time the smelter closes.
The copper smelter ships anodes by rail to White Pine, Michigan, where they are refined into market standard copper cathodes. The smelter has an annual capacity of 90,000 tonnes of copper anode.
In 2008, HudBay produced 82,458 tonnes of copper, of which 7,777 tonnes was produced from recycled White Pine spent anode. Approximately 32% of the concentrate treated at the copper smelter in 2008 was purchased concentrate.
Its concentrate feed last year included 233,975 tons produced by the company and another 58,962 tonnes purchased, mostly from British Columbia, for a total of 292,937 tonnes.
Smelter dates to 1930
The Flin Flon smelter has been operating since 1930. Its problem isn’t cost, since last year processing costs for the facility were C38.1¢ per pound of copper produced. White Pine, a facility operating since 1982, added US 7.4 ¢ to each pound of copper.
Flin Flon smelter reverb slag is poured at the slag dump. Photo courtesy of Brian Pieters Photography
White Pine received 84,494 tonnes of anodes and converted them into 68,756 tonnes of cathode.
Flin Flon uses reverberatory furnace
Flin Flon is one of the last copper smelters using a reverberatory furnace. Feedstock is roasted in a process that removes about half of the sulfur, before the calcines are put into the furnace. Matte from the reverb is taken to converters to create blister, which is then cast into anodes from shipment to White Pine.
The roaster, reverberatory and converter off-gasses are passed through electrostatic precipitators to remove dust, which is in part recycled. The slag is deposited in a slag-storage area and is used primarily for tailings dam construction.
HudBay’s copper smelter is subject to emission reduction targets set out in a notice issued on April 29, 2006 by
the Canadian government pursuant to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.
The notice required HudBay to prepare and commence implementation of a pollution prevention plan (P2 Plan) that considers annual air release limit targets for sulfur dioxide, particulate matter and mercury. The P2 Plan was prepared and implementation was commenced as required by Oct. 29, 2006, the company said.
HudBay added that it is required to provide annual interim progress reports until the P2 Plan is fully implemented by Dec. 31, 2015.
About Flin Flon
The 777 mine at Flin Flon produced its first ore in 2004. Considered the company’s flagship mine, it produced 1.424 million tonnes of ore in 2007. Six kilometers northeast of Flin Flon is the Trout Lake mine, which started in 1982 and produced 827,000 tonnes of ore last year.
Both of those mine ship their ore to the Flin Flon concentrator, which took in 2.3 million tons ore ore in 2007 and produced both zinc and copper concentrates.
While the copper cons are taken by conveyor to the smelter, zinc goes to the complex’ zinc plant, which utilized leading-edge technology, including the world’s first two-stage pressure leaching system and state-of-the-art electrolysis. In 2007, it produced 110,500 tonnes of zinc.
The 777 mine has 4.4 million tonnes of proven reserves, grading 3.1% copper and 4.0% zinc. It also included 2.4 gpt gold and 25.7 gpt silver. Probable reserves at 777 total 11.2 million tons grading 2.1% copper and 5.0% zinc, with similar amounts of precious metals as the proven reserves.
Trout Lake has 1.5 million tonnes of proven reserves grading 2.0% copper and 4.1% zinc, with somewhat less precious metals than 777. Probable reserves are 0.8 million tonnes, grading 2.1% copper and 4.7% zinc.
