TIMMINS, Ontario FALCONBRIDGE announced earlier this week that it is permanently cutting 85 positions at the Kidd Metallurgical site. There are 840 employees at the site, and if those eligible took early retirement, the number of layoffs would be fewer.
Production levels at the Metallurgical Division will be maintained by implementing changes to improve efficiency and make best use of seasonal zinc plant operation. Falconbridge plans to produce approximately 110,000 tonnes of zinc and 140,000 tonnes of copper from its Kidd operations in 2003. The company announced a summer shutdown of its zinc operations and workforce reductions at the Kidd mine earlier this year.
"Significant cost savings are essential if we are to maintain the long-term viability of our operations," said Daniel Picard, general manager of the Kidd Metallurgical Division. "We expect to save approximately $6 million annually as a result of these changes, while maintaining our copper and zinc output levels." He added, "We are confident that all of these changes will help us to achieve our unit cost goal for copper and zinc. We are also exploring additional cost reduction opportunities across the organization."
Employees with questions can write to humanresources@falconbridge.com.
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