“The company is not up for sale and this was unsolicited,” Sherry Duhe said in an interview with Bloomberg.

This announcement follows previous engagements with Ericsson and Telstra to trial private 4G LTE at the Lihir mine and more recently for surface operations at Cadia.

"The demand is bad but the outlook is good."

Zinc's early-year rally has quickly fizzled out as the market prices in a looming supply surge.

The miner is expected to make an announcement on the spinoff as early as next week.

Company is also considering mergers and acquisitions in rare earth and lithium-ion battery recycling.

A third employee was rescued with minor injuries.

"We’re not shy on doing deals that create value for our stakeholders, but we are guided very clearly by our investment focus," Bristow said.