An early-morning furnace run-out has forced the temporary suspension of operations at Falconbridge‘s (FL-T) Kidd copper smelter in Timmins, Ont.
Workers promptly shut down and evacuated the plant after Saturday’s run-out. No one was injured and damage to the plant was minimized.
The company says it will wait until the furnace cools sufficiently before assessing the full extent of damage. Early indications suggest structural damage.
“We estimate that it will take approximately three weeks to repair the refractory on the C-Furnace,” says David Rae, manager of copper operations, in a prepared statement. “While the situation is currently under review, we anticipate that work will be available for all employees who normally work in this area and layoffs are not anticipated.”
The smelter was scheduled to shut down for regular maintenance in September. That work will now be performed over the next three weeks.
Falconbridge says the copper refinery has sufficient inventory stockpiled to operate for much of the shutdown period and copper cathode deliveries to customers will not be impacted.
Refinery production is now expected to hit 136,000 tonnes for 2001, compared with the 145,000-tonne capacity.
Operation of Kidd Metallurgical division’s zinc operations will remain unchanged.
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