FACTBOX-Restarts of idled mines and metal plants

Encouraged by higher prices, some metal producers have started to reverse earlier cutbacks and project delays, prompted around mid-2008 by plunging demand.But for metals such as aluminium and nickel, where more cuts are still needed, such moves come on top of on-schedule start-ups of new operations and threaten to keep the market in surplus for longer than most.Some analysts are also concerned that more zinc producers, who were fast to curtail output as demand slumped, might rush to reopen at current prices.Below are details of restarts of capacity previously idled by low prices and poor demand.Nov 9 - Breakwater Resources said it considering reopening its Langlois zinc mine in Quebec. [ID:nN06248946]Nov 7 - Zambia's largest cobalt producer, Chambishi Metals Plc has restarted production. Operations suspended last December. [ID:nL7702317]Nov 3 - China's Shanxi Guanlu said it had restarted a 40,000 tonnes per year aluminium production line as the market improves. [ID:nSHA303821]Oct 30 - Canada's HudBay Minerals Inc said it will restart its Chisel North mine and concentrator in Manitoba with immediate effect and expects full production from the operations by the second quarter. [ID:nBNG474359]Oct 16 - Timminco Ltd said it will increase silicon metal production at its Becancour plant, the final stage of its return to full capacity after output was curtailed in April. [ID:nN16346498]Oct 15 - Indonesia's state-owned miner PT Aneka Tambang Tbk forecast its nickel output would jump 42 percent next year after restarting its third ferronickel smelter. [ID:nJAK431671]Oct 13 - Bosnia's sole alumina refinery, Birac, has raised its output to pre-crisis levels of 50 percent of total capacity because of increased demand. [ID:nLD92338]Oct 9 - Vimetco said it is restarting its Alum alumina refinery in Romania. The company began an upgrade programme at the plant in February 2007. [ID:nWLA5254]Oct 1 - The new co-owners of Russia's Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant have pledged to restore output to pre-crisis levels, a regional governor's press office said. [ID:nL1608533]Sept 30 - Noranda Aluminum Holding Corporation said its New Madrid aluminium smelter in Missouri has initiated steps to return operations to full effective capacity. The company has recalled 38 hourly employees in preparation for the restart of its third potline in early October. [ID:nWNAB4907]Sept 30 - Zambia's largest cobalt producer Chambishi Metals Plc will restart production in two weeks time when suppliers in the Democratic Republic of Congo are expected to deliver cobalt concentrates, it said. Operations were suspended in December. [ID:nLU292615]Sept 28 - Noranda Income Fund said sulphuric acid and zinc output at its Valleyfield plant in Canada will return to full capacity due to improvements in the sulphuric acid market. Production had been cut by about 20 percent since March.Sept 25 - Zambia's Munali nickel mine will resume operations next month after the main shareholder, Jinchuan Group of China, secured financing for new equipment. [ID:nLP469083]Sept 23 - Australia's Talison Minerals, once the world's top tantalum producer, plans to reactivate its Wodgina mine in mid-2010. [ID:nSYD479828]Sept 17 - Rio Tinto Alcan said it is preparing to restart the 25 percent of capacity idled last January at its Vaudreuil alumina refinery. [ID:nWNAB0753]Sept 17 - Belgium's Nyrstar, the world's biggest zinc producer, said it would restart operations at its Balen plant in Belgium this month after a nine-month suspension due to weak demand. The group resumed full productin at its U.S. Clarksville refinery and Budel plant in the Netherlands in July.[ID:nLH513028]Sept 14 - Zambia's Mopani Copper Mines, a unit of Glencore International, said it had reversed a plan to suspend output at its copper mines due to an uptick in prices and falling production costs. [ID:nLE472840]Sept 14 - Belgium's Nyrstar said it had agreed to buy the East-Tennessee zinc mine complex in the United States from Glencore. The company said production would be restarted as quickly as possible. Nyrstar also said it had recently started limited operations at the Gordonsville zinc mine complex and would ramp up output over the next six months. [ID:nLE599375]Sept 2 - Privately held Noranda Aluminium Holding Corp said it would increase production immediately at its Gramercy alumina refinery in the United States and St. Ann bauxite mine in Jamaica. The company cited increased customer demand. The announcement was made a day after Noranda became sole owner of the operations after buying Century Aluminum's 50 percent stake.Sept 1 - Bosnia's Aluminij Mostar began returning to full production because of increased demand and the recovery of the metal's price on world markets.

Related Tags:aluminum pipe, 3003 aluminum pipe

Detect-Metals is a company that has proven experience, certified quality and dependable service providing specialty metals leadership and supply chain innovation. It is through those strengths that we have expanded our abilities