Xstrata to shut down Ont. smelter for 8 weeks


Xstrata PLC will shut down its Kidd Creek copper smelter in northern Ontario for eight weeks starting April 13 because of falling demand for sulphuric acid, a byproduct of the copper smelting process. Xstrata Nickel has 175 employees at the smelter but says it is trying to minimize the layoffs by assigning staff to other jobs within the facility or encouraging them to take vacation. Sulphuric acid is used in car batteries, ore processing, fertilizer manufacturing, oil refining and other industrial applications but demand has fallen as since the global economy went into recession.