Merger’S Effect Hazy For Mining Asarco Deal Spawns Talk Of Giving Up On Rock Creek

News of Asarco Inc.’s merger with Cyprus Amax Minerals Co. has prompted speculation that Asarco will shut down its Northwest operations and scrap plans to open the controversial Rock Creek Mine.

But mining executives say the talk of scrapping their Northwest operations is premature, if not bunk.

“At this point there have been no decisions on what will take place,” said Don Noyes, Asarco spokesman in New York.

Meanwhile, Kathy Johnson of Montana’s Division of Environmental Quality is wading through the thousands of public comments on the Rock Creek Mine proposal for the project’s final environmental impact statement.

“Everything is charging ahead,” said Dave Young, Asarco’s project manager for the proposed mine on the edge of the Cabinet Mountain Wilderness.

Asarco announced last week an agreement between the two companies to merge, forming the largest publicly traded copper company in the world. The new company, called Asarco Cyprus Inc., will be second in size only to Codelco, which is owned by the government of Chile.

The announcement raised expectations of production cuts to raise copper prices. The Bull Trout Foundation posted an article on its Web site saying the deal will mean mothballed mines.

“Further, Asarco is likely to pull out of the USA completely over the next three years to focus on its massive copper reserves in Peru and Chile,” the article claimed.

“That’s somebody’s interpretation,” Noyes said. “It’s premature to say.”

Among its many holdings, Asarco Inc. owns a copper and silver mine in Troy, Mont., which has been inactive since minerals prices plummeted six years ago.