Freeport Working to Restart Climax Mine in Colorado Next Year
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Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. is looking to restart operations at the historic Climax molybdenum mine next year, CEO Richard Adkerson said last week.
Hundreds of contract employees have been working with regular employees on a $700 million project to get the mine reopened.
The mine in Leadville has been on maintenance status since 1995 after shuttering in 1987 following a plummet in molybdenum prices.
Freeport acquired Climax and the Henderson molybdenum mine near Empire in 2007 when it bought Phelps Dodge Corp.
Adkerson told analysts in a conference call that the company expects to phase in production at Climax, with about 10 million pounds in 2012 and an increase to about 20 million pounds a year by 2013.
Phoenix-based Freeport hired miners for Climax last year and is now looking to hire operators, he said.
Freeport is banking on growing demand for molybdenum, which is used in steel production, as China and other growing Asian nations build infrastructure and housing.
Argus Research analyst Bill Selesky said the technology has improved in the past two decades to allow Freeport-McMoRan to extract more ore from the Climax mine, which is designed for a capacity of 30 million pounds of molybdenum annually and could be expanded.
Source: The Associated Press
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