Nyrstar (OTC:NYRSF) (OTC:NYRSY) said Wednesday it plans to temporarily close two zinc mines in Tennessee at the end of November because of low prices and high inflation; zinc prices on the London Metal Exchange have fallen 16% YTD.
The company, majority owned by trading and logistics company Trafigura, said it will halt production starting November 30 at its Middle Tennessee Mines, which consists of two underground zinc mines, Gordonsville and Cumberland.
The Middle Tennessee processing plant has a capacity of 3M metric tons/year of ore and 50K tons/year of zinc concentrates, according to Reuters.
Nyrstar (OTC:NYRSF) (OTC:NYRSY) said this summer it was looking at germanium and gallium projects in Australia, Europe and the U.S. to try to ease any shortages created by China’s export controls on the materials used for computer chips.