Bullet News GODERICH – Goderich’s salt mine will halt production and lay off workers starting in June, officials announced in a two-line statement issued today.
“The Goderich salt mine will temporarily suspend production beginning June 4 in order to rebalance its inventories because of the historically mild winter weather this past season. About 280 mine employees will be laid off during this period, which will last approximately three weeks,” wrote Kelly Barton, who is corporate communications manager for Compass Minerals, which operates the Goderich salt mine.
The employer and approximately 380 workers who are members of Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada continue to negotiate a contract. A three-year contract expired April 1.
In the first quarter of 2012, winter weather was significantly milder than average and unfavorably impacted sales and operating earnings, according to its quarterly financial report, filed April 27.
To date, the company has received $50 million of insurance advances since the tornado ripped through Goderich, damaging the mine’s surface structures and the evaporator plant. It has spent $26 million to repair property, plant and equipment and estimates spending another $35 million on capital primarily in the remainder of 2012. In the first quarter of 2012, the Company has identified approximately $14 million of estimated losses that it believes qualify as recoverable business interruption losses for a total of approximately $30 million of identified estimated losses since the tornado occurred.
