Asarco tables more cuts (December 24, 2002)

Vancouver – Asarco, a subsidiary of the world’s third largest copper miner Grupo Mexico SA aims to cut production at its Mission mining complex in southern Arizona to 22,000 tonnes annually.

The debt riddled company also announced plans to cut output by 33% at its Hayden copper smelter in Arizona, which depends on feed from the Mission mine, and 13% at its Amarillo refinery in Texas.

With a capacity of 200,000 tonnes per year, the Hayden facility is now expected to produce around 140,000 tonnes of copper anodes in 2003, while the 450,000-tonne Amarillo refinery should yield about 150,000 tonnes of cathode next year.

“Employment at the affected operations will be reduced according to the adjusted production levels,” states Asarco.

The decision to trim output came after Asarco’s union workers late last week rejected the company’s proposal to temporarily cut wages by 15% to save the company money.

The company has been studying the options of a complete shutdown of the Mission operation. The move, prompted by high production costs and low copper prices, would have cut 50,000 tonnes of contained metal from the market. Last year, Phoenix-based Asarco, slashed output at Mission by 61%. In the face of oversupply and lower demand, Asarco trimmed overall refined copper production by 151,000 tonnes in 2001.