Breakwater Resources (BWR-T) has decided to suspend operations at its Langlois mine 200 km north of Val d’Or Que. and the Myra Falls mine on Vancouver Island, BC.
The company says falling commodity prices and the general deterioration of the short term economic outlook globally prompted the shutdown. Zinc fell to about US49 a lb. today, a low not seen since 2004.
Breakwater says the operational changes it made to the mines have been mitigated by the slowdown.
In 2007, the Langlois mine produced more than 28,000 tonnes of zinc in concentrate, 1,300 tonnes of copper in concentrate and 160 million oz. of silver. The mine operates at 2,000 tonnes per day, five days a week.
Last year at Myra falls, nearly 30,000 tonnes zinc in concentrate, 6,000 tonnes copper in concentrate, 811,000 oz. silver and 19,000 oz. gold was produced.
Breakwater also operated the El Mochito zinc mine in Honduras and the El Toqui mine in Chile, which will now make up all of Breakwater’s income. El Mochito produced 29,000 tonnes zinc in concentrate, 10,000 tonnes of lead in concentrate and 1.7 million oz. silver in 2007. El Toqui produced about 32,000 tonnes of zinc in contrite, 37,000 oz. gold and 156,000 oz. silver last year.
Breakwater also has a 20% interest in Blue Note Mining‘s (BN-T, BNMFF-O) Caribou and Restigouche zinc-lead mines in Bathurst, NB. Blue Note recently decided to put those mines on care and maintenance, because commodity prices have made the mines unprofitable as well.
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