Asarco’s Immel nets safety award

The Immel zinc mine of Asarco (NYSE) in Tennessee has won an underground safety award.

The 1992 Sentinels of Safety award was presented to the company by the American Mining Congress and its co-sponsor, the Mine Safety and Health Administration of the U.S. Labor Department.

The contest, intitiated in 1925, honors mines, in eight categories, which have worked the most employee-hours during the year while suffering no lost-time injuries.

Asarco won in the “underground metals” category. The seven other categories and winners are:

* Surface coal — San Juan mine, San Juan Coal, New Mexico;

* Underground coal — Nelms mine-Cadiz Portal, Harrison Mining, Ohio; * Underground non-metal — Cote Blanche mine, Carey Salt, Louisiana; * Open pit — Morenci mine, Phelps Dodge Morenci, Arizona;

* Quarry — Pennsuco Quarry, Tarmac, Florida;

* Bank or pit — W.R. Bonsal (mining division), North Carolina; and * Dredge — Blue Roan Bend, 02-01, Pioneer Concrete of Texas.