MMG shuts Zinc pipe after spill

The Chinese-owned firm is working to determine how much zinc-slurry was discharged; says mining will continue.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - 

Chinese-owned miner Minerals and Metals Group (MMG) has shut down a pipeline that transports zinc concentrate from its Australian Century mine to a port following a spill, it said on Monday.

"We are currently working to determine the amount of zinc slurry, made up of zinc concentrates and water, that was discharged during the incident," the firm said in a statement.

Operations at a processing plant will be shut down during the clean up and repair period, but mining operations will continue, MMG said.

The Century mine is the world's second largest zinc mine but is scheduled to run dry around 2014.

The company, owned by China's Minmetals, bought the Century operation from Australia's OZ Minerals (OZL.AX) earlier this year. (Reporting by Jonathan Standing; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved.

Disclaimer

MINEWEB is an interactive publication, with rolling deadlines through each day, commencing in the Sydney morning,  and concluding, 24 hours later,  in the Vancouver evening.  If you believe your side of an issue deserves inclusion, but has failed to meet one of our deadlines, you are invited to notify the Editor in Chief in Johannesburg, and we will include you in our editing and expanding on our stories. Email him at alechogg@gmail.com

Print story      Email story      Subscribe to free newsletter

Back