Minmetals Zinc Shipments Suspended on Cyclone Threat

BEIJING, Jan. 18 -- China Minmetals Corp., the nation's largest metals trader, said it suspended shipping zinc concentrate at Karumba port in Australia's Gulf of Carpentaria because of a weather warning.

"We are continuing to monitor the low-pressure system in the gulf and have launched our cyclone contingency plan at Karumba," Sally Cox, spokeswoman with Minerals & Metals Group, the Australian-based unit of Minmetals, said in a phone interview from Melbourne today. Mining at the company's Century zinc mine is continuing, she said.

China Minmetals last month restarted concentrate output at Century, the world's second-biggest zinc mine, following an 11- week stoppage because of a ruptured pipeline. The company has moved 18,000 tons of zinc concentrate since shipments resumed, Cox said.

A tropical low is forecast to cross the Queensland state mainland tomorrow near the town of Weipa. Monsoon gales are expected to develop to the north of the tropical low, the Bureau of Meteorology said on its Web site today.