Gypsum industry news

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.

Canada: Cabot Gypsum has relaunched gypsum production at a previously closed facility in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The company has taken over the plant previously owned by Federal Gypsum, which shut down and went bankrupt in 2008.

Sales manager Reg MacLeod said that Cabot Gypsum acquired the plant's assets earlier in 2011 and is leasing the facility from the government of Nova Scotia. MacLeod says the firm expects significant job growth in about a year after the company becomes better established. He wouldn't say how many workers are currently employed at the plant. The factory is currently providing its product throughout the region, with materials being delivered primarily to building supply dealers.

According to the Global Gypsum Directory 2008-2009, the former Federal Gypsum plant on the same site had a capacity of 25.55MM²/ yr before it closed in 2008.