Nyrstar shuts Australian zinc-lead smelter furnace after incident

On August 12, Belgium's Nyrstar said it had shut down its zinc-lead smelter furnace in Port Pirie, Australia, after an incident in the second disruption at the plant this year.

An unidentified incident occurred in the hearth in the primary smelter and caused a forced shutdown of the plant with no injuries, Nyrstar said.

"Repairs will result in the shutdown of the furnace for a number of weeks and a number of options are being considered including a re-start of the sinter plant to maintain production," the company said.

Port Pirie produced 160,000t of lead in 2018, according to data on the Company's website.

Nyrstar restarted production at Port Pirie in late July after a nearly two-month shutdown because of an unplanned outage at the site's blast furnace that disrupted its shipments to customers.

Nyrstar lost 30,000t of lead metal due to the outage, the company said on July 19. Global trading house Trafigura took over the troubled smelter last month.

.Asian Metal Copyright Nyrstar lost 30,000t of lead metal due to the outage, the company said on July 19.Asian Metal Copyright