Canada: USG has announced that it permanently closing the Fundy Gypsum mine in Hantsport, Nova Scotia. 50 people were working at the mine until it was idled earlier in 2011. The Hantsport mine had been producing gypsum since 1934.
Robert Williams, spokesman for USG, said that the decision to close is a direct result of weak demand for USG's flagship wallboard Sheetrock® in the United States. because of the ongoing housing recession. He said being a stand-alone mine an expensive freighter ride away from USG's four US manufacturing plants also hurt the Hantsport mine's viability. Williams said finding another buyer will be difficult.
"The main use for gypsum is gypsum wallboard,"' he said. "It is unlikely that anyone else would have an appetite for it."
The company once employed hundreds of people and spent US$50m in the 1990s to upgrade the Hantsport operation.
