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Zinc, Lead and Tin

Column: European smelter squeeze keeps zinc close to record highs – by Andy Home (Reuters – March 29, 2022)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, March 29 (Reuters) – London Metal Exchange (LME) zinc recorded a new all-time high of $4,896 per tonne earlier this month, eclipsing the previous 2006 peak of $4,580 per tonne.

True, the March 8 spike was over in a matter of hours and looked very much like the forced close-out of positions to cover margin calls in the LME nickel contract, which was imploding at the time before being suspended. But zinc has since re-established itself above the $4,000 level, last trading at $4,100 per tonne, amid escalating supply chain tensions.

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US government mandate to support nickel and zinc production (Mining Journal – February 23, 2022)

https://www.mining-journal.com/

The latest list, released by the United States Geological Survey, contained 15 more commodities than the first list of critical minerals, which was created in 2018. The list has been officially updated after draft proposals were issued in November.

The list is designed to act as a trigger for government initiatives to improve domestic production, and diversity of supply, of key mineral. In practice this could unlock government support for junior minors and refining businesses in the US.

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Glencore’s Zinc Mine Expansion Threatened by Indigenous Backlash – by James Thornhill (Bloomberg News – February 15, 2022)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Glencore Plc’s plans to expand one of the world’s largest zinc and lead mines has been thrown into doubt after an Australian government judged it failed to adequately consult with Aboriginal custodians over the protection of a sacred site.

In a ruling that may remind resource investors of the backlash against Rio Tinto Group’s 2020 destruction of ancient rock shelters, the Northern Territory government found that Glencore didn’t consult all custodians of the Damangani sacred site on its McArthur River mine expansion plans.

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Ivanhoe Mines announces rebirth of Kipushi mine – by Olivia Johnson (CIM Magazine – February 14, 2022)

https://magazine.cim.org/en/

On care and maintenance since 1993, Ivanhoe says Kipushi will be one of the highest-grade zinc mines on the planet

Ivanhoe Mines announced on Feb. 14 that it has signed an agreement with Gécamines, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s state-owned mining company, to bring the Kipushi zinc mine back to production.

The mine, according to Ivanhoe, will be one of the highest-grade major zinc mines in the world. A 2022 feasibility study released by the company shows measured and indicated resources of 9.2 billion pounds of zinc from 11.78 million tonnes grading at 35.34 per cent, an after-tax net present value of US$941 million at an eight per cent discount rate based on a long-term zinc price of US$1.20 per pound and a mine life of 14 years.

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COLUMN-European smelter cuts catch zinc looking the wrong way: – by Andy Home (Reuters – October 19, 2021)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Oct 19 (Reuters) – The London Metal Exchange (LME) zinc price surged 26% last week to hit a 14-year high of $3,944.00 per tonne. The spark for the explosive rally was Nyrstar’s Oct. 13 announcement that it was reducing output by up to 50% at its three European smelters in the face of spiralling energy prices.

The panic spread when Glencore said it too was “adjusting production” across its European operations to reduce exposure to peak power pricing periods during the day. China’s power-related zinc supply problems were in the price. Europe’s weren’t.

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Metals head for record, zinc spikes as energy crisis hits supply (Bloomberg News – October 14, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Base metals surged, led by zinc which spiked to the highest since 2007 after European smelters became the latest casualties in a global energy crisis that’s knocking supply offline and heaping pressure on manufacturers.

Zinc rose as much as 6.9 per cent on the London Metal Exchange, and a gauge of six industrial metals rapidly closed in on an all-time high. Aluminum, one of the most energy-intensive commodities, is at the highest since 2008.

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Wild markets gatecrash London Metal Exchange Week party – by Andy Home (Reuters – October 2021)

https://www.reuters.com/

This year’s London Metal Exchange (LME) Week was a subdued affair by comparison with past excess. Put on ice last year due to covid-19, the annual metals party returned in slimmed-down form with many opting for virtual over physical drinks. Analysts were in equally sober mood. Everyone’s still positive on the longer-term energy transition story but more immediately worried about China.

The debt problem faced by real estate developer China Evergrande Group is no Lehman Moment, to quote Bank of China’s head of commodity strategy Amelia Fu, speaking at the LME Seminar. But weakening Chinese property sales spell trouble for what is a big metallic demand driver.

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B.C. investors behind major mine restart in Yukon – by Nelson Bennett (Business in Vancouver – September 24, 2021)

https://biv.com/

Still plenty of potential in Faro lead-zinc mine, says serial entrepreneur Don McInnes

The tiny Yukon town of Faro, a four-hour drive northwest of Whitehorse, would never have existed were it not for the nearby lead-zinc mine of the same name, which is said to have been the largest in the world at the time it was built in the late 1960s.

At its peak the town was home to 2,100 people, with the Faro mine accounting for 35% of Yukon’s GDP.

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Mining the Northwest: Is there a zinc and copper mine in Schreiber’s future? – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – September 23, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Metallum Resources posts feasibility study showing almost nine-year mine life near Lake Superior’s north shore

A Vancouver zinc exploration company wants to revive mining on the north shore of Lake Superior, 20 kilometres north of Schreiber.

Metallum Resources said there’s enough high-grade zinc and copper in the ground at its Superior Lake Zinc Project to mine for a minimum of 8.5 years as the company probes for more resources this fall around a former mine site, 150 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay.

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Mining tourism still untapped potential in Iran (Tehran Times – June 25, 2021)

https://www.tehrantimes.com/

TEHRAN – Mining tourism as a relatively untapped potential could lead to economic prosperity and fuel boom in the Iran tourism scene by the means of creating new destinations and sustainable jobs for the locals.

Experts say mining tourism is a new category in the tourism industry, which involves tours of both abandoned and active mines.

Last year, Iran started to promote mining tourism by launching the first project in the Anguran lead and zinc mine, located 130 kilometers west of the northwestern city of Zanjan.

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Hitting the reset button: Trevali restarted the shuttered Caribou mine with a new lease on life – by Kylie Williams (CIM Magazine – June 17, 2021)

https://magazine.cim.org/en/

In mid-November 2020, Marie-Claude Dumont, senior operations manager at Trevali Mining’s Caribou zinc-lead-silver mine in northern New Brunswick, “dusted off the life-of-mine plan” for the operation the company had shuttered nine months earlier.

With zinc prices on the rise and a faint light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, Dumont and her team ran the numbers to assess the feasibility of restarting the mine. The models looked good, and with a healthy hedging deal in place, Trevali moved swiftly to announce the restart of the mine on Jan. 15, 2021.

By March 6, the first ore was at the surface and delivered to the stockpile, 20 days shy of a year since Trevali announced the temporary suspension of mine operations.

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Electric car boom ushers in new era of tin mining in Cornwall: Poldark mine’s £1.4bn boost after new deposits are discovered as prices for metal rocket – by Francesca Washtell (Daily Mail – June 9, 2021)

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/

A new era of Poldark mining is drawing closer after Cornish Metals revealed that there are bigger reserves of tin in the county than previously thought. There is £1.4billion of the metal, which is used in electric batteries, around the South Crofty mine near Redruth, the company said yesterday.

About 65,000 tonnes of tin are thought to be in the area and tin prices have rocketed in recent months to more than $33,000 (£23,380) per tonne.

The findings are a huge boost to Cornwall, which is one of the UK’s most deprived regions and a focus of the Government’s levelling up agenda. Cornish Metals plans to mine the tin, providing much needed jobs and investment.

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Glencore preparing to go deeper than deep at Timmins’ Kidd Mine – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – June 8, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Feasibility study to be start on another expansion to world’s deepest base metal operation

After 55 years, the world’s deepest base metal mine looks to still have some life yet.

Glencore Canada is spending US$44 million on drilling and a feasibility study in preparing for another deep mine expansion at Kidd Mine near Timmins Kidd’s current life of mine runs out at the end of 2023 but Glencore management and technical staff have been working to extend it.

Known as Mine 5, Glencore said they’ve put 89,000 metres of drilling into the ore body and have queued up a new round of 87,000 metres once safety protocols are put in place.

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Glencore approves further drilling in hopes of extending Kidd mine life – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – June 4, 2021)

https://www.timminspress.com/

$50M feasibility study to be completed by end of 2022

Glencore Canada is investing more than $50 million on a drilling and feasibility program aimed at extending mine life at Kidd Operations. The mine is currently projected to wind down by end of 2023. However, hopes remain alive that operations may extend beyond that.

Last week, the company advised staff that the next phase of drilling and feasibility was approved for what has been dubbed the Mine 5 project, Alexis Segal, Glencore’s head of corporate communications told The Daily Press Thursday night.

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Championing a Green Energy Revolution through High-Grade Cu-Ni-Co-Zn Projects in the World’s Best Mining Jurisdictions – by Stephen Mlot, P.Eng (June 2, 2021)

Murchison Minerals Limited (TSXV: MUR) is a company founded by industry veterans and following a plan for discovering and building resources for the Green Energy Revolution through high-grade Cu-Zn and Ni-Co projects in Canada’s best mining jurisdictions.

Murchison is operating in the provinces of Saskatchewan and Quebec, based on those provinces’ rich variety of metal deposits, as well as the positive fiscal and operational environment for mineral exploration and development. In its 2020 Annual Survey of Mining Companies the Fraser Institute ranks those jurisdictions as the top two in Canada and in the top ten globally.

The Green Energy future is not just about electric vehicles and battery power. Clean energy goes beyond this to include Wind, Solar, Hydrogen Energy Cells, Geothermal and even Nuclear. Other drivers of the future will be the electrification of everything, the 5G interconnection of devices (managed by AI systems), and energy-efficient systems.

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