Pittsburgh Business Times reported that Horsehead Holding Corp. has issued its planned schedule for restarting a refining facility shut down following an accident that killed two employees.

The company hopes to restart all four of its Larvik furnaces by the end of September and its zinc oxide and refined zinc metal columns will reopen starting in November. It expects everything to be fully operational by January.

Horsehead already has begun implementing certain preventative measures as a result of these investigations.

The cause of the accident is believed to be a result of liquid zinc escaping into a much hotter combustion chamber and combusting when it reached the atmosphere.

Mr Jim Hensler president & CEO of Horsehead said “Our investigation has progressed to the point that we are now focusing on resuming operations. Through the collaborative efforts of our independent experts and our work force, we will be implementing several safety enhancements to the refinery plant. We anticipate the support of our customers during this difficult period and look forward to servicing them once again in the near future.”

The Monaca based company’s zinc oxide and metal refinery plant was temporarily shut down in July as the US Occupational, Safety and Health Administration, the US Chemical Safety & Hazard Investigation Board and Horsehead began investigating what caused the explosion.


(Sourced from Pittsburgh Business Times)