US co fined after exposing employees to arsenic

Butte (US): A company that turned mining waste into roofing materials at a Montana plant was fined and ordered to conduct medical monitoring of workers, after pleading guilty to a criminal charge that it exposed employees to arsenic.

Tinley Park, Illinois-based US Minerals was Friday sentenced by US District Judge Dana Christensen to pay a USD 3,93,200 fine and will be on probation for five years, according to court records. The company pleaded guilty in August to negligent endangerment, a misdemeanour violation of the federal Clean Air Act.

Prosecutors said US Minerals continued to poison its workers by exposing them to arsenic despite repeated warnings from regulators. Long-term exposure to inorganic arsenic can lead to skin cancer and cancer in the bladder and lungs, according to the World Health Organization.

In its guilty plea, the company acknowledged it negligently placed another person in the imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury.

From 2013 to when it closed in June 2021 the company's Anaconda plant converted mining waste known as black slag a byproduct of a century of copper smelting in the town into roofing materials called Black Diamond Abrasive Products.