LONDON - The PASAR copper smelter and refinery in the Philippines is shut after a fire earlier this month, majority owner Glencore International said on Wednesday.

"There was a fire at Pasar on 2 January ... We are working to ensure the facility is back up and running as soon as possible," Glencore spokesman Simon Buerk said in an email, adding there was only one minor injury from the fire.

He gave no further details but Philippine newspaper Business Mirror described the blaze as a "major conflagration" that took three hours to extinguish.

The smelter processes 720,000 tons of copper concentrate a year and the refinery has an annual capacity of 215,000 tons of cathodes, according to the company's website (www.pasar.net.ph).

PASAR, or the Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corp., operates the Philippines' only copper smelter and refinery. It was acquired in 1999 by a unit of Swiss commodities giant Glencore, which has a 78% stake.

Outside the Philippines, PASAR's copper concentrates come from mines in Australia, Canada, Southeast Asia including Papua New Guinea, and South America.