Kennecott said Friday it will set up a commercial team responsible for the sale and marketing of the molybdenum produced at its Bingham Canyon Mine.
For the past eight years, Noranda has been performing commercial activities on behalf of Kennecott under an agency agreement."While Noranda has been able to establish a strong position in the marketplace on our behalf, the decision to carry on our own commercial activities reflects Kennecott's intention to build closer relations and partnerships with users of molybdenum around the world," said Pete Thomas, vice president for sales.
The commercial team will be headed by Tim Outteridge, who will report to Thomas. The rest of the team includes Tom Hobbs, Eva Model and Skip Sullivan, all former members of the Noranda marketing group who handled the molybdenum commercial activities on behalf of Kennecott.
The activities will be carried out through two subsidiaries: Ken-ne-cott Sales Europe Limited and Kennecott Sales America Corp. Noranda will continue to provide agency, banking, administrative, accounting, insurance and credit services on behalf of Kennecott for a three month interim transition period.
In 1995, the Bingham Canyon Mine produced 23.7 million pounds of molybdenum, sold mainly in Europe, Japan and North America.