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Zinc, Lead and Tin

Teck Bullish on Coal, But Not Enough to Add Production Capacity – by Danielle Bochove and Natalie Obiko Pearson (Bloomberg News – February 27, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Teck Resources Ltd. is bullish on steelmaking-coal prices, but not enough to add production capacity, said the head of Canada’s largest diversified miner.

“I’m feeling excited,” Teck Chief Executive Officer Don Lindsay said Monday in a Bloomberg TV interview. “In the last 10 days we’ve seen a clear change in direction in coal prices,” with a surge in forward prices for the material that’s used to make steel, he said.

The possibility that China could reinstate coal output restrictions at the end of March and its decision to stop importing coal from North Korea are supportive of prices, Lindsay said at the BMO Capital Markets metals and mining conference in Hollywood, Florida.

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Analysis – Zinc rally may have further to run as supply shortfall bites – by Melanie Burton (Reuters U.K. – February 27, 2017)

http://uk.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE- London zinc prices CMZN3 have nearly doubled over the past 13 months and are closing in on nine-year highs, but signs of tightening in the global market for refined zinc means the rally may have further to run.

Zinc bulls pushed prices higher after the closure of several giant zinc mines last year led to a steep drop in global ore supply, setting the stage for a shortage of the metal used to rust-proof steel.

There are now signs that shortage is materialising, with global stocks shrinking and prices for spot metal rising, just as post-holiday demand picks up in China and a strike at North America’s second-largest zinc plant further cuts supply.

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Enormous global demand on way for copper, platinum, zinc – Friedland – by Martin Creamer (MiningWeekly.com – February 8, 2017)

http://www.miningweekly.com/

CAPE TOWN (miningweekly.com) – Enormous global demand is building up for copper, platinum and zinc, driven by new technology, mitigation of health risks in hospitals and agricultural augmentation, Ivanhoe Mines executive chairperson Robert Friedland said on Wednesday.

In a comprehensive address to the Investing in African Mining Indaba, Friedland used statistics from credible global institutions and well-recorded technological advances to highlight major looming copper shortages, strong upcoming platinum demand for hydrogen fuel cells and the practice of adding zinc to soils to grow food, which promotes good health and renders the metal nonrecyclable.

He flashed on to a big screen graphics of platinum-catalysed fuel cell vehicles needed to do the main job of stopping tiny particles in the air of major urban cities from entering lungs, getting into the blood stream and then going permanently beyond the blood brain barrier.

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Growing impatient, Nahanni Butte starts building own road to mine – by Mark Rendell (CBC News North – January 30, 2017)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/

After waiting nearly three years for the approval of an all-season road into the heart of Nahanni National Park, the Nahanni Butte Dene Band began cutting its own path last week. The proposed road to the Prairie Creek zinc mine has been limping through the Mackenzie Valley Review Board’s environmental assessment process since mid-2014.

“We’ve been waiting well over two years for this so-called permitting process to give the green-light for the road,” said Mark Pocklington, the communities senior administrative officer. “And, in this process, the review board and others have put demands on further and further studies.”

Growing impatient, Nahanni Butte Chief Peter Marcellais gave the go-ahead to community members to start cutting a trail across Indian Affairs Branch land — set aside by the federal government for the band’s residential use — near the community.

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Hudbay mine closures will mean major reductions at Flin Flon surface operations – by Jonathon Naylor (Flin Flon Reminder – January 21, 2017)

http://www.thereminder.ca/

Hundreds of job reductions are expected at Hudbay’s Flin Flon operations by 2019 or 2020, with the company hoping retirements and a proposal to maintain the zinc plant can minimize job losses.

While Hudbay has developed projections around job losses and layoffs, Daniel Weinerman, manager of investor relations and corporate communications, stressed all figures under discussion are preliminary estimates.

At best, the news will mean a reduction of approximately 500 jobs: Hudbay estimates 200 will come from layoffs, with the rest from attrition as workers leave or retire. At worst, Flin Flon could lose 800 to 900 jobs, leaving the city with a small fraction of the company’s Manitoba workforce.

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Boliden to invest €44m in Tara Mines after finding new resources – by Charlie Taylor (Irish Times – January 11, 2017)

http://www.irishtimes.com/

Boliden, the Swedish owner of Tara Mines in Co Meath, is to invest €44 million in the site after identifying new mineral resources and deciding to expand the mine’s tailing dam.

The mine, which is just outside Navan, is Europe’s largest, and the world’s ninth largest zinc mine. It currently employs over 600. Production at Tara Mines began in 1977, and since then more than 80 million tonnes of ore have been mined.

Boliden Mines said a recent exploration has resulted in the discovery of a new mineralisation Tara Deep. An extension of the capacity of the tailings dam, which currently limits Tara’s lifespan, has also been decided. The new tailings dam will have sufficient capacity for production at current levels until 2026, Boliden said.

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Arizona shares tumble on speculation – by Salma Tarikh (Northern Miner – January 1, 2017)

http://www.northernminer.com/

Arizona Mining (TSX: AZ) shares slightly recovered on promising assays from the Taylor zinc-lead sulphide deposit at its Hermosa property, following a sharp decline after a mining publication raised concerns about the marketability of Taylor’s zinc concentrates, before sliding again.

Located 10 km from the town of Patagonia and 80 km southeast of Tucson, Ariz., the high-grade zinc deposit contains 28.3 million indicated tonnes grading 10.9% zinc equivalent and 75 million inferred tonnes at 11.1% zinc equivalent, using a 4% zinc equivalent cut-off grade. Exploration success at Taylor this year coupled with higher zinc prices have skyrocketed the company’s shares.

On Dec. 7, the stock touched a 52-week high of $3.49, up 947% from its 2015 close of 32.5¢. A day earlier the company had closed a $36-million bought deal with underwriters led by Scotia Capital, National Bank Financial, RBC Capital Markets, TD Securities and Raymond James. It sold 11.8 million shares at $3.05 apiece.

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Glencore’s Command of the Zinc Trade – by Tim Puko (Wall Street Journal – January 3, 2017)

http://blogs.wsj.com/

Just one global trading house may determine whether 2016’s best-performing commodity keeps rallying in the new year.

Glencore PLC has become the big focus of zinc traders and analysts by sitting on 500,000 tons of annual production it shut as the commodity markets busted back in 2015. Now zinc is leading the broad commodity rebound — up 60% and the best performer in the Bloomberg Commodity Index in 2016 – making analysts question a restart from Glencore.

Glencore’s shut-in supply accounts for about 4% of world production and may make up the entire shortfall in the zinc market these days. Analysts put zinc’s supply shortage less than 400,000 tons.

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NEWS RELEASE: Arizona Mining Comments on Misleading Article

VANCOUVER, BC–(Marketwired – December 14, 2016) – Arizona Mining Inc. (AZ.TO) (“Arizona Mining” or the “Company”) is responding to the latest article published by the Global Mining Observer that is aimed at discrediting Arizona Mining and its Taylor Project.

The latest article quotes unnamed sources giving generic opinions about the marketability of zinc concentrates containing manganese. Global Mining Observer then takes these general comments and attempts to apply them to Arizona Mining to discredit what the Company has announced to date on its Taylor deposit.

As previously disclosed, Arizona Mining has done initial bench-scale metallurgical work on the various types of ore found at the Taylor deposit which does not yet reflect cleaner stages, regrinds or any optimization, which may reduce the manganese levels. The same initial results show very low iron and cadmium contents and negligible mercury and arsenic, which are other common undesirable elements.

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Zinc Rally Driven by Demand for Better Cars in China and India – by Biman Mukherji (Wall Street Journal – December 14, 2016)

http://www.wsj.com/

Prices for base metal are up 70% this year

NEW DELHI—In a stellar year for commodities, one base metal—zinc—has stood out from the pack, with prices rising more than 70%. Thanks to greater demand for higher-quality cars in big developing markets like India and China, many investors believe this rally won’t be just a flash in the pan.

Zinc’s surge had already been aided by the closure of several mines world-wide during a previous price slump, which restricted supply of the base metal. Now, with consumers in India and China buying more cars that use rustproof galvanized steel—which is made using zinc—analysts believe demand could continue to outstrip supply.

“The rise in zinc and coal has certainly brought back investor optimism,” said Steve Hulton, research director at Metals & Mining Fundamentals in Sydney. “Given zinc’s comparatively tighter fundamentals among base metals, we do expect zinc prices to continue to outperform.”

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Arizona Mining comes out swinging – by Staff (Mining Journal – December 13, 2016)

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

Vancouver-based Arizona Mining has strongly refuted claims made in global mining blog that compared some of its deposits to the “Bre-X” scandal. An article in the Global Mining Observer on the weekend drew a comparison to Bre-X, the company involved in a major gold mining scandal in the mid-1990s, the Financial Post reported.

Arizona says the Observer’s article, which is no longer available online, was misleading. “First, the article appeared to infer that the Taylor deposit was a re-named version of the Central Deposit,” Arizona said in a statement.

“There are, in fact, two distinct deposits at the Hermosa project – the Taylor zinc-lead-silver sulphide deposit and the Central deposit, which is a manganese-silver oxide deposit.”

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NEWS RELEASE: Arizona Mining Refutes Misleading Article on Taylor Deposit

VANCOUVER, BC–(Marketwired – December 12, 2016) – Arizona Mining Inc. (TSX: AZ) (“Arizona Mining” or the “Company”) wishes to address an article published by The Global Mining Observer on Sunday, December 11, 2016 regarding the Company’s Hermosa Project in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, which the Company believes is misleading. The Company is issuing this statement to provide its shareholders and the market with accurate information.

First, the article appeared to infer that the Taylor deposit was a re-named version of the Central Deposit. There are, in fact, two distinct deposits at the Hermosa project — the Taylor zinc-lead-silver sulfide deposit and the Central deposit, which is a manganese-silver oxide deposit. The article implies these deposits are one and the same, which is incorrect.

The metallurgical testwork on the Taylor Deposit was conducted by Resource Development Inc. (RDi) and has returned excellent results to date which were initially published in a January 7, 2016 press release, subsequently on February 1, 2016 with the maiden resource calculation, and reiterated by RDi within the Technical Report released on November 29, 2016.

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Top 10 mines riding zinc price wave – by Editor (Mining.com – December 4, 2016)

http://www.mining.com/

With a more than 75% price jump over the year, zinc is the best performing major metal throughout the mineral commodities market. There are two main factors behind this remarkable zinc price performance.

First, despite the fact that China’s economy is slowing its pace zinc demand keeps growing, especially in Asia. China remains the main player on the market contributing approximately 50% of global zinc consumption.

Surprisingly, both the US and European Union have also seen growth in zinc demand. According to Wood Mackenzie, global zinc demand saw growth of 3.2% in 2015 against 0.9% in 2014. Second, from the supply side, the zinc industry has recently witnessed closure of two major mines, Century and Lisheen; both were old-time members of the “Top 10 zinc mines” club.

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Glencore Pivots From Disposals to Dividends as Stock Rallies – by Jesse Riseborough (Bloomberg News – November 29, 2016)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

What a difference a year makes. Glencore Plc fended off questions in 2015 about its survival as commodity prices hit new lows, and now there’s talk that the company’s turnaround plan has gone so well that it could be months away from paying dividends again. Surging coal and zinc prices, a rebounding stock price and shrinking debt pile made Glencore one of mining’s biggest success stories this year.

Chief Executive Officer Ivan Glasenberg, who will provide an update on corporate strategy on Thursday, spent the past year ticking off items outlined in a crisis-induced debt reduction plan, including a goal to sell $4 billion to $5 billion in assets. The market rewarded him for it, with the stock tripling in 2016 and clawing back almost all of last year’s losses.

Now, backed by a strong rebound in profits from its coal and zinc divisions, Glasenberg is in a position to pay back shareholders for supporting him through Glencore’s darkest days as a publicly traded company.

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Kidd doesn’t foresee extension of mine beyond 2022 – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – November 17, 2016)

http://www.timminspress.com/

TIMMINS – As much as the closure of the Kidd Mine will have an impact on the loss of assessment for the city hall treasury in Timmins, there will also be a dramatic impact on Kidd’s annual payroll in Timmins which is more than $100 million a year.

Some details of the closure plan for Glencore Kidd Operations in Timmins were revealed this week, ironically at a city council meeting where the company was honoured for the contributions it has made the community in the last half century.

“Exactly 50 years ago this week, in fact on the 16th of November, Kidd Creek officially went into production,” said Kidd Operations general manager Steve Badenhorst Monday night.

He said it has been a proud history for more than 20,000 past and present employees who have worked in one of the world’s best base metal deposits.

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