By Denny Jacob
Minerals Technologies on Monday said its subsidiary Barretts Minerals will exit the talc business amid a backdrop of talc-related litigation.
The specialty minerals company said it’s exploring structural alternatives, including a potential sale of talc assets, to facilitate its decision. Barretts Minerals has active mine sites and claims in Montana and manufacturing facilities in Montana and Texas, the company said.
Major litigation involving talc has developed in recent months. A bankruptcy judge in April shielded Johnson & Johnson from jury trials in roughly 40,000 pending talc-related lawsuits.
Judge Michael Kaplan of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Trenton, N.J. extended to the healthcare-products company the same protection against talc-related trials enjoyed by its subsidiary LTL Management LLC, a vehicle created by J&J to carry its talc-related liabilities into chapter 11.
The freeze on jury trials will last through mid-June while LTL moves through bankruptcy, Judge Kaplan said at the time. His ruling marked the second time he has frozen jury trials in tort litigation alleging that J&J’s talc products cause cancer, which the company denies.
Write to Denny Jacob at [email protected]
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