Fire hits Noranda’s Brunswick smelter

Noranda (NRD-T) reports that a weekend fire was contained to the silver refinery at its Brunswick lead smelter in Belledune, New Brunswick.

No injuries were reported, and the company says that production at the lead operation remains uninterrupted.

The smelter’s manager, Thompson Hickey, said the cause of the fire is not yet known.

Late last year, Noranda announced that thanks to low treatment charges and the generally weak forecast for lead, it would shift the smelter to an eight-month seasonal basis, shutting down for four months each year, beginning in July 2003. The move will reduce annual lead production by 22%.

The smelter will also stop custom smelting third-party concentrates in 2003, but will continue to treat lead concentrate from Noranda’s Brunswick mine and external sulphate residues.

Noranda plans to trim the operation’s current staff of 470 people by about 15% through attrition. During shutdown, staff and hourly employees will be laid off; a skeleton crew will remain to handle care and maintenance.

In the end, annual lead production is pegged at 78,000 tonnes (currently 100,000 tonnes) and silver production will be more than halved to 5 million ounces (down from 12 million oz.) Overall costs are forecast to drop by 10%.