Dec 22 2010
Zinc producer Horsehead Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Horsehead Holding Corp (Nasdaq: ZINC), today announced that it has re-started a sixth zinc smelting furnace at its facility in Monaca, PA, returning the smelter to full production.
The Company has re-started operations at the refinery, with the ability to produce the full compliment of zinc oxide products, and expects to return to pre-incident zinc oxide production capability at its refinery in early January 2011.
Horsehead previously reduced its operations from six furnaces to five in response to the incident on July 22, 2010 at its zinc refinery that resulted in a shutdown of its zinc oxide production process. Since that time, the Company has made significant changes to improve safety and efficiency.
"Our progress in re-building the refinery remains on schedule," said Jim Hensler, Horsehead's President & CEO. "Horsehead is increasing metal production to supply refinery columns that have started into production. Also, we have expanded our customer base since the incident and expect, given current market conditions, to remain at a six furnace operation level for the foreseeable future," Hensler added.