Annual production drops nine per cent
Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services
Little Cornwallis Island (Feb 05/01) - Things have changed from record production numbers a few years ago at Cominco's Polaris mine which is scheduled to shut down next year.
"The final shutdown is currently expected in the summer of 2002," Cominco said in a release. Polaris, which employs 240 people, is located on Little Cornwallis Island in the High Arctic.
According to the company's annual report, production of zinc and lead concentrates is down nine per cent at Canada's northernmost base-metal mine. For the year ended December 31, the mine produced 202,500 tonnes of concentrates compared to 223,100 tonnes in the prior year. The year 2000 production represents a 30 per cent drop from 1998 when a record 288,000 tonnes of zinc and lead concentrates were produced.
Over the 12 months of 2000, the mine produced 168,600 tonnes zinc, compared to 184,800 tonnes zinc in 1999. Corresponding annual lead concentrate production numbers are 33,900 and 38,300. In the final frame of the year, concentrate production was 55,000 tonnes zinc and 10,000 tonnes lead; both down 14 per cent.
"These reductions were expected as the mine nears the end of its life," said the company, which has a 77.5 per cent stake in Polaris.
During 2000, Cominco shipped 222,000 tonnes of zinc and 42,000 tonnes of lead concentrate. Overall, Cominco's mining operations -- the company's flagship is the Red Dog mine in Alaska -- generated a $170.2 million in unaudited profit in 2000, up from $159.2 million the year before.
Driving the earnings was the sale of $137 million in surplus power from the company's Trail metal operations in B.C. The surplus power is sold through B.B. Hydro. In 1999, Cominco sold $25 million worth of surplus power from Trail.
