U.S. federal agencies said Thursday that Asarco LLC, the U.S. copper miner now controlled by Grupo Mexico SAB de C.V. (GMBXF.PK), has paid $1.79 billion to fund environmental cleanup and restoration as part of the company's bankruptcy reorganization.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the departments of Justice, Interior and Agriculture announced that money from environmental settlements in the bankruptcy will be used to pay for past and future costs incurred by federal and state agencies at more than 80 sites contaminated by mining operations in 19 states. Under the terms of the plan, all allowed claims were paid in full along with interest.
Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli said, "The effort to recover this money was a collaborative and coordinated response by the states and federal government. Our combined efforts have resulted in the largest recovery of funds to pay for past and future clean up of hazardous materials in the nation's history. Today is a historic day for the environment and the people affected across the country."
American Smelting and Refining Co., or Asarco, has operated for nearly 110 years - first as a holding company for diverse smelting, refining, and mining operations throughout the U.S. However, most of the company's units have closed and require extensive remediation.
The company filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code in August 2005 amid more than $1 billion of asbestos and environmental claims. Asarco emerged from four years of bankruptcy reorganization on Wednesday after being acquired by Grupo Mexico.
Of the $1.79 billion payment, the federal government received about $776 million, which will be distributed in accordance with the underlying settlements to restore over 35 different sites.
Much of the money paid to the U.S. will be placed in special accounts in the Superfund to be used by the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, to pay for future cleanup work. The money will also be placed into accounts at the Department of Interior and the Department of Agriculture to pay for natural resource restoration.
Of the remaining money, the Coeur d'Alene Work Trust was paid $436 million, while the three custodial trusts - which address the owned but not operating properties of Asarco and involve a total of 13 states and 24 sites - were paid a cumulative total of about $261 million. Payments totaling in excess of $321 million were paid to 14 different states to fund environmental settlement obligations at over 36 individual sites.
The states that will be cleaned up are Arizona, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and Washington.
Grupo Mexico battled for more than a year to reacquire Asarco, which it first bought in 1999. The company had lost control of Asarco in the bankruptcy proceedings, but won a court auction for the company in November after a U.S. federal judge favored Grupo Mexico's $2.4 billion bid over that of Indian miner Sterlite Industries India Ltd.'s (SLT) $2.5 billion bid, that was backed by Asarco and its main union, the United Steelworkers. Sterlite is a unit of U.K.-listed mining group Vedanta Resources plc (VDNRF.PK,VED.L).
GMBXF.PK closed Thursday's trading session at $2.36, up $0.10 or 4.42% on a volume of 34,131 shares.
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June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.