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Zinc, Lead and Tin

Last hurrah for the zinc price – by Frik Els (Mining.com – April 12, 2018)

http://www.mining.com/

Zinc hit a four month low of $3,135 a tonne on Thursday, down more than 12% from its decade high achieved mid-February.

Rising fears about trade protectionism have taken the shine off most base metals but zinc’s bearish outlook has more to do with new supply; and lots of it.

The metal, mainly used to galvanize steel, has more than doubled since hitting multi-year lows in January 2016 after the shutdown of major mines including Australia’s Century, the Lisheen mine in Ireland and top producer Glencore’s depleted Brunswick and Perseverance mines in Canada.

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COLUMN-LME options landscape suggests one last bull hurrah for zinc – by Andy Home Reuters U.K. – April 4, 2018)

https://uk.reuters.com/

LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) – Is that it for the zinc price or does the market have one last hurrah before the bull cycle turns?

London Metal Exchange (LME) zinc for three-month delivery hit a 10-year high of $3,595.50 per tonne on Feb. 15, the culmination of a gradual but relentless tightening of the supply chain that had been playing out over several years.

Since then zinc has been dragged lower in the broader risk-off pull-back in the industrial metals space and is currently trading either side of the $3,250-per tonne level. Analysts, such as Max Layton of Citi, believe there is still the potential for one last leg higher to $3,800-4,000 per tonne.

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PDAC 2018 Thayer Lindsley Award: Don Taylor, Arizona Mining Inc.

PDAC 2018 – Thayer Lindsley Award – Don Taylor from PENDA Productions on Vimeo.

http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.

Thayer Lindsley Award - Don Taylor, Arizona Mining.jpg

Don Taylor (left) and Rod Thomas, Chair of PDAC Awards Committee

This award recognizes an individual or a team of explorationists credited with a recent significant mineral discovery anywhere in the world.

Don Taylor, Arizona Mining Inc. – For the 2014 discovery of the Taylor lead-zinc-silver deposit in Arizona

When geologist Don Taylor joined the management team at Arizona Mining (then Wildcat Silver) in 2010 his main task was to move the company’s silver-manganese project in southern Arizona through advanced exploration to development.

At that time the surface oxide deposit posed a metallurgical challenge and Don, who graduated with a MSc from the University of Missouri, was eager to test the potential for sulphide mineralization at depth.

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Feast and famine in the global tin market(s) – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – March 21, 2018)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – The last British tin mine closed in 1998. When South Crofty ceased operating, it brought the curtain down on two millennia of tin mining in the southwestern county of Cornwall.

However, hope springs eternal in Poldark country, as the region has been dubbed after the hugely successful television series based on the eponymous novels of Winston Graham.

Two companies are now actively looking at reviving Cornwall’s tin fortunes. Strongbow Exploration is focused on South Crofty itself, which needs to be dewatered before any new mining can occur.

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Canadian miner could reopen centenary Idaho mine – by Valentina Ruiz Leotaud (Mining.com – March 15, 2018)

http://www.mining.com/

Following the settlement of a longstanding Superfund lawsuit against the owner of the Bunker Hill Mine, the project’s Canadian operator might restart works at the site.

Toronto-based Bunker Hill Mining Co. told The Spokesman-Review that it would consider reopening the mine on a limited basis by the end of the year, while large-scale production could be possible in about two years.

The Canadian miner is leasing the lead-zinc-silver property located in Kellogg, northern Idaho, and has an option to buy it from the owner, Placer Mining Co.

Before doing that, Bunker would have to raise about $100 million.

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Nexa sees strong zinc prices, demand outpacing supply – by Susan Taylor (Reuters U.S. – March 6, 2018)

https://www.reuters.com/

TORONTO (Reuters) – Brazilian miner Nexa Resources expects demand for zinc to outpace supply, keeping prices for the metal at $3,400 to $3,500 a ton for the rest of the year, Chief Executive Tito Martins said on Tuesday.

Small mines in China, which previously ramped up output to meet demand, are unable to renew permits under new environmental policies and help meet demand growing at a rate of 2 to 2.5 percent annually, Martins said in an interview at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference in Toronto.

“Prices have been very stable between $3,400 and $3,500 and we are assuming the price should remain, at the least, at the level they are for the full year,” Martins said.

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Commentary: Sudden jump in zinc stocks threatens bull party – by Andy Home (Reuters U.K. – March 5, 2018)

https://uk.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – A bucket of cold water has just been poured on zinc’s bull fires. The London zinc price has been on a two-year romp, hitting a 10-year high of $3,595.50 a tonne last month.

The bull run has been fuelled by a narrative of tightness, first at the raw materials stage of the supply chain and more recently in the refined metal segment of the market.

That narrative, however, has just been upended by the delivery of 78,950 tonnes of metal onto warrant at the London Metal Exchange (LME). The “arrivals” showed up in today’s LME stocks report and break a long-running downtrend in LME stocks.

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Rockcliff Metals Corporation: King of Grade in Canada’s Most Prolific Mining Belt-Flin Flon-Snow Lake Greenstone Belt (March 2, 2018)

http://rockcliffmetals.com/

Rockcliff Metals Corp. (TSX.V: RCLF) is a company set for success. With royalty revenues just around the corner, RCLF is getting ready to show the world its full potential as its properties in Manitoba are demonstrating excellent results.

What is also intriguing about RCLF is Management’s ability to pick up amazing properties from staking high-quality prospects or from seasoned prospectors or joint-venture opportunities, like they did with a senior base-metal producer Hudbay Minerals who has had continuous mining in the world-class Flin Flon-Snow Lake Greenstone Belt (FF-SL GB) for nearly a century.

Over the past 10 years, RCLF has amassed over 45,000 collective hectares in this camp, spent over $27 million, completed over 80,000 metres of drilling and has grown its collective basemetal resources to over 11 Mt of high-grade copper, gold, zinc and silver, all in one of the richest and most prolific mining camps in the world.

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Mount Isa community reflects on 95 years as Australia’s ‘kindergarten of mining’ – by Harriet Tatham (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – February 22, 2018)

http://www.abc.net.au/

Founded on land belonging to the Kalkadoon people, one of Queensland’s longest-running mining towns has today turned 95. Known for its soaring plumes, spinifex, red dirt and heatwaves, mining is the lifeblood of Mount Isa — a fact the remote community steadfastly defends.

“Mount Isa really was the enduring strength of the mining industry,” long-time resident and former mayor of 18 years Ron McCulloch said. In an era of environmental consciousness, Mr McCulloch said the city could attract some criticism in 2018, but he did not believe the spirit had been lost.

“Nowadays I think people are much more motivated by wealth and looking after themselves more than looking after the city, so I think there’s been a little bit of a downturn in the affection people have for the mining industry and the city itself.”

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Teck sees strong demand for steelmaking coal in 2018 – by Susan Taylor (Reuters Canada – February 14, 2018)

https://ca.reuters.com/

TORONTO (Reuters) – Teck Resources Ltd, the world’s second-biggest exporter of steelmaking coal, said on Wednesday that growing global steel production is expected to boost demand for its coal in 2018, though coal trade competition will also likely rise.

Vancouver-based Teck, which also mines copper, zinc, gold and oil sands, said it is “feeling pretty good about 2018” after reporting in-line financial results.

“Most of us forget what this feels like, but it’s certainly very good for commodity markets, and they are now demand driven, rather than supply driven,” Chief Executive Don Lindsay said on a conference call.

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Smelters expected to reduce zinc processing fees amid mine supply shortage – by Melanie Burton (Reuters U.S. – February 7, 2018)

https://www.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Zinc smelters are set to accept lower fees for processing concentrate into metal when annual contracts are hammered out next week at a conference in California, as a crunch in mine supply stretches into a third year.

Treatment charges (TCs), the fees miners pay smelters to process their ore, are likely to fall by at least 13 percent to $140-$150 a tonne or below for 2018 term contracts, from around $172 a tonne last year, according to four trader and analyst sources.

The fees are usually settled between major smelters and miners at the International Zinc Association’s annual conference, this year kicking off on Feb. 11 in Carlsbad, California. The first contract to be agreed leads the way for other deals, becoming a global benchmark.

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COLUMN-Five stand-outs in China’s base metals trade last year – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – January 29, 2018)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Jan 29 (Reuters) – China’s base metals imports stopped offering a simple, over-arching story line several years ago. The country has built out ever more processing capacity over the last decade, meaning that the “real” story is often what’s happening at the raw materials stage of the supply chain.

In cases such as aluminium, China has arguably constructed too much smelter capacity, to the point that the rest of the world has stopped caring about how much it imports but rather how much it exports.

Across the rest of the metallic complex, individual market dynamics have become ever more important, fracturing the Chinese trade picture into multiple, sometimes contradictory parts. Against an increasingly kaleidoscopic backdrop, here are five key take-aways from last year’s trade flows.

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Roundup 2018: Osisko’s Roosen on tackling ‘tough’ markets – by Matthew Keevil (Northern Miner – January 25, 2018)

http://www.northernminer.com/

VANCOUVER — Sean Roosen’s Osisko group of companies is among a rare breed of mining-focused entrepreneurial firms that have flourished over the past decade despite frigid capital markets and low commodity prices.

The group emerged as a major financial player following the $4.3-billion sale of Osisko Mining’s flagship Canadian Malartic gold mine in mid-2014 and now provides alternate capital funding to explorers and miners via stream financings, equity placements, and related partnership models.

On Jan. 23, Roosen took the stage at thee Association for Mineral Exploration’s (AME) annual Roundup conference to discuss the state of capital markets, and the challenges the mining industry must overcome to combat falling discovery rates and a lack of interest from generalist investors.

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‘A shock to all of us’: Teck Resources’ dam sale upsets workers, community in Trail, B.C. – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – January 19, 2018)

http://business.financialpost.com/

The sale is raising questions about whether Teck Resources is laying the groundwork to pivot away from its smelting business to focus on other businesses elsewhere

Mike Mozak’s union was in the middle of labour negotiations with Teck Resources Ltd. last spring when the company announced a proposed $1.2-billion deal to sell its hydroelectric dam that powers the lead and zinc smelter where his members worked. “It was a shock to all of us,” said Mozak, president of United Steelworkers Local 9705, who questions how the sale could affect the smelter’s future.

Nestled on a hill overlooking the town of Trail in British Columbia’s West Kootenay region, the smelter complex has operated for more than 100 years and is one of the largest in the world, certainly the largest in Canada where it supplies 1,400 jobs and props up the regional economy.

Last year, through the first three quarters, the smelter produced more than 230,000 tons of zinc, essential for rustproofing the steel and iron found in everything from bridges to frying pans, and a component used in fertilizers and batteries.

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Top 10 zinc miner Trevali lifts 2018 guidance 140% as zinc powers to 10yr high – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – January 16, 2018)

http://www.miningweekly.com/

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Canadian zinc miner Trevali Mining expects to produce 140% more zinc this year, following a transformational 2017 that saw it produce a record 177.4-million payable pounds of zinc.

The 2017 output was boosted by the December quarter production from the newly acquired Perkoa mine, in Burkina Faso, and the Rosh Pinah mine, in Namibia, which it acquired from Glencore on August 31. Production for the assets from April 1 to August 31, was treated as part of the working capital adjustments captured in the purchase price calculation.

Trevali, which is based in Vancouver, on Monday reported record unverified fourth-quarter production of 104.8-million payable pounds of zinc, 13.5-million payable pounds of lead and 396 899 oz of payable silver. Preliminary 2017 output was reported at 45.8-million pounds of lead and 1.6-million ounces of payable silver.

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