"Lead and silver production was not affected," a spokeswoman told Reuters.

Port Pirie is the world's largest lead smelter, with capacity of around 220,000 tonnes, which is scheduled to increase to 250,000 tonnes by the end of 1998. The lead smelter is currently operating at 70 percent of capacity during the expansion and will continue at that rate until December 1998, the spokeswoman said.

Pasminco earlier on Wednesday said failure of a spent acid wall tank on September 11 would result in a 2,000-tonne shortfall in the current six month period to end-December, although it expected to recoup 600 tonnes in the following six months. The zinc plant is scheduled to operate at 85 percent of capacity for six weeks while replacement equipment was installed. Recent modernisation work at the smelter also had more than doubledsilver refining capacity to 450 tonnes a year, the spokeswoman said.

The heavier load requirements were needed to accommodate additional shipments coming from The Broken Hill Pty Co Ltd's new Cannington silver and lead mine, she said.

Much of the ore had previously come from Pasminco's own Broken Hill lode, which is currently forecast to expire in eight to 10 years, she said.

Pasminco also was on target to see its first shipments of zinc concentrate from its Century mine in Queensland delivered to its Budel smelter in the Netherlands in late 1999, the spokeswoman said.

Initial production from Century is earmarked solely for Budel, with the mine eventually supplying other smelters with intermediate concentrates once production is ramped up to full capacity, the spokeswoman said. Meanwhile, Pasminco managing director David Stewart said world demand for zinc was largely in line with supply in the 1998/99 (July/June) fiscal year.

"No new supply capacity will be available while much lower exports areexpected from the People's Republic of China," Stewart said in Pasminco's annual report.

"Continuing strength in European and North American consumption will be offset by slower Asian demand," he said.

Western world lead demand grew nearly four percent in 1997/98, but should slow to around one percent during the next few years, Stewart said. "Western world lead consumption is forecast to grow at 1.4 per cent (70,000 tonnes) per annum over the next five years, with the Americas showing the strongest growth rates," Stewart said. "Estimates of Asian demand growth for lead in the next 12 months range from 1.2 per cent to negative three percent," he added.

Decreased demand for Pasminco's products in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and South Korea was largely offset by strong demand in Hong Kong/China, Taiwan, Bangladesh, India and South Africa, Stewart said.

"The Asian downturn had the greatest impact on Pasminco markets catering to domestic demand in the weakened economies, such as general galvanising inthe case of zinc and domestic battery supply in the case of lead," Stewart said.

In contrast, export-oriented areas, such as diecasting, in some cases increased consumption of Pasminco zinc, Stewart said.

"Pasminco retained most of its share of the zinc and lead metal import market in the Asian region," Stewart said.