(AP) -- PHOENIX (AP) - A top executive with the company set to take over Asarco LLC says the Tucson, Ariz.-based copper miner will emerge from a four-year bankruptcy court battle modern, competitive, profitable and environmentally sound.
The general counsel for Grupo Mexico subsidiary Asarco Inc. said Tuesday that the company's Arizona and Texas mining and refining operations will be free from environmental liabilities that drove it into bankruptcy protection in 2005. Jorge Lazalde (HOR'-hay lah-ZAWL'-day) also says the company assumed a contract making 1,500 unionized workers among the best-paid in the industry and has offered to extend it through 2011.
Grupo Mexico is set to close on its winning bid for Asarco in mid-December. It offered $2.2 billion to creditors along with an estimated $1.4 billion in cash held by Asarco.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
(Copyright ©2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
