Port Pirie lead production to resume at end of June

Refined lead production at Australia's Port Pirie smelter is expected to resume by the end of this month after an unplanned outage, Belgian producer Nyrstar said today.

"Nyrstar had to declare force majeure under a number of its agreements, due to an unplanned stoppage of production at the Port Pirie smelter that commenced on 28 May," the company said.

"This unplanned shutdown will have a material negative impact on production at Port Pirie and underlying ebitda in the second quarter. Nyrstar has not yet fully quantified the impact and will provide further information regarding the resolution of the production outage in due course."

Nyrstar's global refined lead metal output fell by 6pc year on year to 37,000t in the first quarter. The firm produced 160,000t last year.

Refined lead production at Port Pirie stopped for 13 days' maintenance in early May. The plant started a modernisation process at the end of last year, which included shutting down obsolete and outdated equipment. The sinter plant at Port Pirie will shut by the end of 2019, but the smelter will continue to ramp up lead production.

Nyrstar is the world's second-largest zinc producer and in April it entered a lock-up agreement with Trafigura, which has submitted a proposal to Nyrstar's creditors to exchange debt for perpetual securities and other capital from Trafigura. This debt restructure was effective from 7 May.

Trafigura already owns 24.42pc of Nyrstar, which has mining and smelting operations in Europe, the Americas and Australia.