WHITE PINE - The White Pine Copper Refinery is set to close sometime this summer, and employees are gearing for final smelting operations.
"The employees are going to get final word of when their last day will be," said Phil Kolehmainen, who once worked at the refinery.
Kolehmainen said the final smelting operations at the parent company in Flin Flon, Manitoba, Canada is set for June 11.
"There's not going to be enough material left to go much further than Aug. 1," he said.
Koleh-mainen said there are plans to keep employees working as long as possible, up to Aug. 1, but for certain, the White Pine Copper Refinery will close this summer.
For some time, officials at the refinery have been looking for a new contract in order to keep the refinery, and the approximate 70 employees, working, he said. Right now, he said an idea is to allow people to leave in small groups to continue to employ others for as long as possible.
"We're looking at a possible layoff and possible discontinuation of the refinery unless they find one," Kolehmainen said in April. "It'll be an impact on the White Pine and Ontonagon area. We don't really need that right now."
For a short time, the company was looking at different contracts, however, for a specific kind of material - copper.
"They were looking for a contract all over the world to replace the existing one they have," he said. "All they needed was raw material and they can keep working."
According to material released in July 2009 from HudBay Minerals, a Canadian integrated mining company, per Dick Barlock, White Pine Copper Refinery manager, "The financial impact of the smelter closure on the company will be minimal, as the processing costs from the sale of concentrates are expected to be similar.
Further, the smelter is part of an integrated complex, and reclamation costs, which have been fully accounted for on the company's balance sheet, only occur when the entire Flin Flon metallurgical complex ultimately shuts down. HudBay anticipates manpower reductions as a result of the closure to be approximately 225 in Flin Flon and 65 at the White Pine Copper Refinery."
"The Flin Flon copper smelter has been a great asset and one of the centerpieces of our operations for over 80 years," said Peter R. Jones, HudBay's chief executive officer, in the release. "Today's business realities, combined with the age of the plant and regulatory changes, make continued operation of this plant impractical and uneconomic. We are strongly positioned post-smelter closure with our metallurgical facilities, the 777 and Trout Lake mines, and an impressive project pipeline including Fenix and Lalor."
Stacey Kukkonen can be reached at skukkonen @mininggazette.com.