A mining operation in Flin Flon that employs 800 people will leave the community in three years. The closure of Hudbay’s 777 mine — the only mine in the northern Manitoba city — has long been forecasted, but employees learned this week through an internal letter that the company’s attempts to find a replacement for the mine have fallen short.
The mining city’s largest employer will also close its mill in Flin Flon, 630 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, and will “most likely” cease operations at its zinc plant by 2021.The closures will inevitably result in job losses, though the company expects to transfer some positions to nearby mine and mill operations in Snow Lake, Man.
“We have to be honest: after mining for 90 years in the Flin Flon area, we now know that we won’t have an anchor mine to replace 777 and sustain operations in Flin Flon the same way they are today,” said the internal letter, which the company supplied to CBC News on Wednesday.
“Despite a lot of work over the past few years, the most likely scenario is that mining operations will cease in Flin Flon in 2021. As a result, the Flin Flon mill will also cease operations,” said the memo to employees, which also indicated the zinc plant is likely to close that year.
“Our efforts to find new sources of ore from 777 did not turn out as we hoped.” Robert Assabgui, vice-president of Hudbay’s Manitoba business unit, wrote the facility would likely only have ore from its Lalor mine, more than 200 kilometres east of Flin Flon, at its disposal. That mine will be able to produce only half the feed of zinc used at its plant currently.
For the rest of this article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/800-jobs-flin-flon-mine-shutters-1.4924774