TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian base-metals miner HudBay Minerals expects to close its copper smelter in Flin Flon, Manitoba, before July 1, 2010, and its copper refinery in White Pine, Michigan, shortly thereafter, the firm announced on Thursday.

The company expects to cut about 225 jobs at Flin Flon and 65 at White Pine, as a result of the closures.

"Today's business realities, combined with the age of the plant and regulatory changes, make continued operation of this plant impractical and uneconomic," said CEO Peter Jones.

HudBay indicated previously it was looking at a plan to close the smelter, because of tightening environmental regulations on emissions control and lower treatment charges for processing third-party concentrate.

"Particulate and sulphur dioxide emissions to the atmosphere will be essentially eliminated from the Flin Flon operations once the smelter is closed, and the integrated metals facilities will be among the most environmentally friendly in North America in this regard," the company said on Thursday.

HudBay is building a filtration plant that will enable the company to ship its copper concentrate offshore, if necessary.

It expects to have sales arrangements for its copper concentrate in place "by the time the smelter closes".

Besides the copper smelter, HudBay's Flin Flon metallurgical complex includes a zinc/copper concentrator and high-tech zinc plant.

The firm currently mines zinc, copper, gold and silver from its 777 and Trout Lake mines, in Flin Flon, but has halted operations at the Chisel North zinc mine, in Manitoba, the Balmat zinc mine, in New York state, as well as its Snow Lake concentrator, after base-metals prices weakened last year.

However, Jones indicated earlier this month that he only needed to see a “relatively modest” increase in the price of zinc to consider reopening Chisel.

Jones and the rest of the HudBay board, who were appointed in March after their predecessors were ousted by shareholders in a proxy battle, are scheduled to present a strategic plan for the company at the group's annual general meeting in Toronto on Friday.

'MINIMAL IMPACT'

HudBay said the financial impact of the smelter closure for the company will be "minimal", because the processing costs from the sale of concentrates are expected to be similar.

The copper smelter processes copper concentrates into anodes, which are then sent by rail to White Pine, Michigan, where the anodes are refined into market standard copper cathodes.

The smelter has an annual capacity of approximately 90 000 t of copper anode.

In 2008, HudBay produced around 82 458 t of copper. Approximately 32% of the concentrate treated at the copper smelter during the year was purchased concentrate.

Shares in the company rose 4,85% on Thursday morning, to C$8,00 a share by 10:12 in Toronto.

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