The re-opening of Tara Mines has been postponed until September because of the continuing low zinc price level, the mine's owners, Finnish company Outokumpu, said yesterday.

But the company said the market was showing signs of recovery. "Of course, we need the right price levels but we believe we can see some signs of the recovery of the zinc price. We believe it's going to get better in the latter half of the year," said Mr Eero Laatio, managing director of Tara Mines.

Last month, Mr Laatio said Tara could be ready to go back into production from the start of July if it got the go-ahead from Outokumpu. Production at the mine - the biggest zinc mine in Europe with annual production of almost 200,000 tonnes - has now been rescheduled to start on September 2nd.

Outokumpu closed the mine last November because of poor prices, forcing its 700 workers into temporary redundancy. Shutting the mine was also part of Outokumpu's move to quit capital-intensive base metals mining. In late March, the company said it was in talks with several parties to sell the mine.

In March, the company re-employed around 500 of the staff, some on a job-sharing basis, to work on a redevelopment programme at the mine. This programme will be extended by one more month until the end of July, the company said.

"We are on schedule on the original improvement programme but we are using this period to further enhance our operations to be more viable," said Mr Laatio.

SIPTU branch secretary Mr Christy McQuillan said the union believed the decision to defer the re-opening to September was linked to the delay in the sale of the neighbouring Bula mine to Tara. He added that the delay was "frustrating" for the workers.