The management and unions at Tara Mines are expected to begin intensive negotiations this week to save the 630 jobs at the Navan plant after its Finnish owner, Outokompu, said it could stop work at the Co Meath mine in two weeks.
Outokompu set July 19th as the date on which it would "suspend" operations at the mine unless it could achieve an "acceptable solution" to its loss-making problems.
The company has lost over $25 million since the beginning of last year, due to the collapse of world zinc prices.
Senior management at Tara Mines called SIPTU branch secretary Mr Christy McQuillan and shop stewards to a meeting at 3 p.m. yesterday to tell them that Outokompu would provide no more funding for the mine after July 19th.
A statement prepared for the press was read out to them by the managing director of Tara Mines, Mr Charlie Brown. Its core two sentences were: "Tara remains open for discussions with the workforce. In the event that no acceptable solution can be achieved, the company has no option but to suspend its clearly uncompetitive and non-profitable Tara operation as of 8 a.m., July 19th, 1999."
Mr McQuillan said afterwards he would be meeting again with shop stewards this afternoon to "comprehensively review our position, both in relation to the Labour Court recommendation and the company's statement".
Yesterday's meeting at the mine came a week after the Labour Court recommended the company accept union proposals to save the mine on a three-month pilot basis. If this option failed, the unions should then unconditionally accept the company's survival plan.
The silence of the company after the recommendation fuelled speculation that closure was imminent.
Last night, the Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, who represents the constituency, said Outokompu clearly did not feel it had either the time or the money to see if the court's "very creative and constructive attempt to solve the problem could work". He urged both sides to engage in immediate talks.
The Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, is being kept appraised of the situation.
She is unlikely to intervene at this stage, according to official sources.
The Outokompu statement does hold out the slim hope that closure can be averted if the workforce accepts its "Tara Survival Plan".
Under this, the key group of workers, the miners, could lose up to £12,000 of their current earnings of between £34,000 and £40,000 a year.
Yesterday, the human resources manager of Tara Mines, Mr John Kelly, said: "If we don't get a viable plan after a couple of weeks, we will have to close."
The chairman of the craft group of unions at the mine, Mr Eamon Devoy, said last night that while the company said "it was not accepting or rejecting the Labour Court recommendation, it is clearly rejecting it.
"We are now in an extremely serious situation and each of the unions will be consulting members over the next 24 hours to decide how to approach this very difficult situation."