The Vancouver Sun reports in its Saturday edition weak prices have forced Thompson Creek Metals to suspend work at its Endako molybdenum mine in Fraser Lake, B.C. A Canadian Press dispatch to The Sun says about half of the mine's salaried employees will be let go at an estimated cost of $1.7-million in severance packages. Hourly workers were notified Thursday that their last day on the job will be Feb. 17. Less that two years ago, a ceremony was held at the mine, 175 kilometres west of Prince George, for the opening of a $650-million mill that nearly doubled the mine's daily processing capacity to 55,000 tonnes. The mine, then 42 years old, was expected to last another 18 years. Thompson Creek boss Jacques Perron said in a statement the company had expected the operational improvements implemented this year would have been sufficient to keep the Endako mine operating during the prolonged volatility in the market, but molybdenum's price weakness gave the company no other option but to place the mine on temporary suspension. Fraser Lake mayor Dwayne Lindstrom called the news "devastating." He added, "The suspension impacts more than 350 employees and their families here in Fraser Lake."