Fluorspar mine in Newfoundland closes due to depressed prices

A fluorspar mine on Newfoundland’s south coast has been closed indefinitely because of poor market prices. The decision comes just weeks after the mine operator’s parent company, Minworth PLC of England, provided a $15-million debenture to refinance the mine’s debt and allow for expansion of its tailings system.

Rex Gibbons, Newfoundland’s minister of mines and energy, met with the chairman of Minworth last week and told reporters afterwards the company is looking for other markets, but there isn’t any reason to expect the mine will reopen soon.

Gibbons blamed the closure of St. Lawrence Fluorspar Ltd. on poor market prices caused by a flood of low-cost Chinese fluorspar last November. The fluorspar was stockpiled by the Chinese government after the U.S. closed its markets to China following the Tiananmen Square incident in June, 1989. When trade between the two countries resumed recently, China dumped its fluorspar on to world markets at about one third less than the going price.

“The problem is the markets are just totally overloaded with this cheap Chinese fluorspar . . . and so until that works its way through the system, you’re not going to get back into a regular commercial operation,” Gibbons said.

The mine, which has been struggling financially since it was reopened by Minworth in 1984, closed in November, laying off 120 workers. Gibbons said the company has been putting a lot of money into the mine. In June, the province extended loan guarantees to the company totalling $3.3 million for another three years “to allow them to get their financial arrangements in order. And we have agreed with them now that we will not demand interest payments and things.”

Fluorspar is the commercial name for fluorite, a calcium fluoride mineral. It is used in various metallurgical processes, in ceramic wares and in the manufacture of hydrofluoric acid.