News

Five Tennessee zinc mines to reopen

February 8, 2007 — Strategic Resource Acquisition Corporation has bought five inactive zine mines in Smith County, Tennessee, and plans to reopen them by the end of the year.

The mines are near Carthage, Gordonsville, and Elmwood, Tennessee, about 50 miles east of Nashville. They were purchased from Pasminco Ltd., an Australian mining company, for about $17 million. Pasminco's smelter in Clarksville is not included in the deal. The mines also produce as by-products limestone aggregate, used in construction and road-building, and agricultural lime.

About 250 people will be employed by the mines, or roughly the same number as lost their jobs when the mines were shut down in 2002. Smith County's unemployment rate rose to over 10 percent when the mines and several factories closed at about the same time.

Zinc prices hit a record high of $4,600 per British ton in late 2006. The metal is used in making galvanized steel, and demand for it has soared in the burgeoning economies of India, China, and Eastern Europe.