Kennecott inspecting damage to failed furnace

Kennecott Utah Copper employees Tuesday were checking damage to a flash converting furnace that failed Friday evening. Louie Cononelos, Kennecott's director of government and public affairs, said one of the walls of the smelter was breached Friday, causing about 200 tons of molten copper and slag to flow out of the furnace. No employees were seriously hurt in the incident, Cononelos said, but two workers were treated for minor injuries at the site and returned to work. He said fire trucks were called to the scene but water could not be used on the molten material, because that could cause an explosion. Instead, Cononelos said, the metal and furnace needed to cool before employees could get inside and look for the cause of the failure. Workers started that process Tuesday. Until the damage can be assessed, Cononelos said, Kennecott will not know how long it will take to rebuild the furnace. The company, which employs about 2,300 Utahns, does not plan any immediate layoffs due to the incident, he said. "We are looking at all kinds of options, because this has a major effect on your copper production," Cononelos said. In the flash converting furnace, granules of matte copper, which is about 70 percent pure, are dropped down a reaction shaft and heated, producing copper that is about 99 percent pure. Cononelos said Kennecott will continue to produce matte copper from its larger, flash smelting furnace while the converting furnace is down for repairs. Kennecott Utah Copper, a subsidiary of London-based Rio Tinto plc, produces about 310,000 tons of refined copper every year. In New York Monday, copper prices rose about 2 percent, the biggest gain in three months, on speculation that reduced output from Kennecott will further slow the buildup of copper inventories in exchange warehouses. The furnace failure comes at a time when the growth of copper inventories in London Metal Exchange warehouses is slowing amid other production cutbacks. Rio Tinto shares were up $1 at $47.75 in early trading Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange. Bloomberg News contributed to this report.