Asarco tables more cuts (January 06, 2003)

Vancouver — Asarco, a subsidiary of the world’s third-largest copper miner, Grupo Mexico, aims to cut production at its Mission mining complex in southern Arizona to 22,000 tonnes annually.

The debt-ridden company also announced plans to cut output by 33% at its Hayden copper smelter in Arizona, which depends on feed from the Mission mine, and by 13% at its Amarillo refinery in Texas.

With a capacity of 200,000 tonnes per year, the Hayden facility is expected to produce 140,000 tonnes of copper anodes in 2003, while the 450,000-tonne Amarillo refinery should yield about 150,000 tonnes of cathode.

“Employment at the affected operations will be reduced according to the adjusted production levels,” states Asarco.

The decision to trim output came after Asarco’s union workers rejected the company’s proposal to cut wages by 15% (temporarily) to save the company money.

The company has been considering shutting down the Mission operation altogether. Such a move would have cut 50,000 tonnes of contained metal from the market. Last year, Phoenix-based Asarco slashed output at Mission by 61%. In the face of oversupply and lower demand, the company trimmed overall refined copper production by 151,000 tonnes in 2001.