Super Typhoon in Philippines Shutters PASAR's Copper Smelter

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The fourth-most powerful typhoon on record has wreaked a copper-processing plant owned by Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corporation (PASAR) (Leyte, Philippines), the smelting subsidiary of Glencore Xstrata PLC (LSE:GLEN) (Baar, Switzerland).

The Philippine's sole copper smelter was shut down for precautionary measures a day before Super Typhoon Haiyan, locally known as Yolanda, hit last week. The typhoon destroyed the lives and livelihoods of millions in the provinces of Leyte and Samar.

"The PASAR plant suffered heavy structural damage due to typhoon Yolanda, and we are currently assessing the effect on the plant," said Yenny Gonzales, PASAR Corporate Relations Officer, in an interview with Industrial Info. "The plant will be shut down for four to six weeks."

"The PASAR Complex is currently being assessed, but all our personnel are safe and sound."

Gonzales said that PASAR President and CEO David S. Halley is inspecting the complex and will give further details of the damage this week once he has arrived in Manila.

PASAR is scheduled to do a $600 million expansion project to raise the plant's copper smelter capacity to 1.2 million tons of concentrates per year and its refinery to 500,000 tons of copper cathode per year.

A 200-megawatt (MW) power plant is also in the pipeline to lower its energy cost and support its expansion. PASAR is currently in talks with GN Power Limited (Manila Philippines), Electricity Generating Public Company Limited (Nonthaburi, Thailand), and GDF Suez (Paris, France) for a 200-MW, coal-fired power plant, plus auxiliary facilities.

Bought in 1999 by Glencore from the Philippine government, PASAR buys and process copper concentrates from mines in the Philippines, Australia and Indonesia.

PASAR shut down last year due to a fire that broke out in its acid plant, caused by the malfunction of its electrostatic precipitator.

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