Reuters reported that Belgium's Nyrstar SA , the world's biggest zinc producer, has lowered its guidance for the zinc it will mine this year, given setbacks at its Tennessee mines and a production downgrade by Finnish partner Talvivaara .

Nyrstar cut its 2011 zinc in concentrate production target to a range of 205,000 tonnes to 215,000 tonnes from its previous target of 215,000 tonnes.

Finnish miner Talvivaara, which mainly mines nickel but has an agreement with Nyrstar for the supply of zinc, cut its output target in early October.

Nyrstar said it now anticipates approximately 32,000 tonnes of zinc in concentrate to be dug out by Talvivaara. Mr Greg McMillan COO said during a conference call that “It is a world class facility. They have some technical, operational and systematic issues at the moment. They're getting on top of them, just a bit slower than hoped.”

Nyrstar's Tennessee mines suffered from problems with equipment and repairs required to underground infrastructure.

Mr McMillan said "We are very confident that in 2012 we will be able to demonstrate a significantly improved performance at both those operations.”

Nyrstar said its smelter production in the third quarter was about 244,000 tonnes with all but one unit working at full capacity.

By increasing its focus on mining, Nyrstar aims to produce 50 percent of its raw material needs in the medium term.

Nyrstar said that assuming all of its mines operated at full production it would produce 43 percent of the zinc in concentrate it needs.

The group said it continued to look at takeover opportunities in the mining sector.

(Sourced from Reuters)