Noranda plans 3-week shutdown for Horne

Noranda (NRD-T) said on Thursday it will shut its Horne copper smelter in Rouyn-Noranda, Que., for three weeks beginning on July 21.

For the past few weeks, about 130 employees have been running the smelter at well below half of its normal capacity.

On June 18, more than 500 employees represented by Le Syndicat des travailleurs de la Mine Noranda at Horne walked off the job to force action on demands revolving around sub-contracting. The employees’ contract at Horne expired in February.

By June 21 Noranda had declared force majeure on receipt of copper concentrate from other companies.

“The strike was an unplanned event that took us by surprise and the shutdown will allow staff and other non-unionized employees to take vacations and a much needed break,” the general manager of the Horne smelter, Mario Chapados, said in a prepared release.

In 2001, the smelter produced 188,000 tonnes of copper.

The operation last suffered a strike in 1986; it lasted three months.