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Zinc, Lead and Tin

Tahltan Nation signs benefits agreement with Silvertip mine owners (CBC News North – January 21, 2021)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north

The Tahltan Nation and the owners of the Silvertip mine in northern British Columbia, 90 kilometres southwest of Watson Lake, Yukon, have signed an impact and benefit agreement.

The Tahltan Central Government says in a release it wants to implement the deal with Coeur Mining immediately.

“We have a shared vision of empowering Tahltan workers, entrepreneurs and companies while working together to mitigate the mine’s impacts to our Tahltan territory, culture and values,” said Chad Norman Day, president of the Tahltan central government.

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[Maine Mining] Wolfden reports additional findings of zinc, lead at Pickett Mountain location – by Alexander MacDougall (The County – January 12, 2021)

https://thecounty.me/

MT. CHASE, Maine — Additional findings of zinc minerals, as well as other elements such as lead and copper, have been found at the proposed Pickett Mountain mining site, located on property owned by Canadian mining company Wolfden Resources.

The Thunder Bay, Ontario-based company said its most recent test drilling showed polymetallic minerals, most particularly Zinc, which made up 24.2 percent of the results.

Other minerals reported were lead (11.2 percent of the results) and copper (3.2 percent). The total zinc equivalent, or the value of all reported minerals relative to the value of the mainly discovered zinc, was 52.9 percent.

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Zinc price soars as Vedanta halts Gamsberg mine after accident – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – November 18, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

Zinc prices climbed on Wednesday to an 18-month high after Vedanta suspended mining at its Gamsberg zinc mine in South Africa following an accident that trapped ten workers.

Vedanta Zinc International (VZI) noted the mine will stay closed until further notice while a search continues for two miners still missing after the incident.

The news comes in a zinc market where mine supply is already tight due mainly to restrictions to help slow the spread of covid-19.

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Why Canada needs to develop its zinc deposits – by Joseph Quesnel (Troy Media – September 30, 2020)

https://troymedia.com/

Joseph Quesnel is a research associate with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

Zinc is an important ingredient in disinfectants such as soap, so it plays an important role in preventing the spread of COVID-19. As we know, the twin pillars of COVID-19 prevention are social distancing and washing your hands properly.

So mining this bluish-white metal is important to Canada’s strategy for addressing the pandemic at home.

Beyond soap, zinc is used to galvanize steel to protect it from corrosion. And zinc is an essential element for our health, as over 200 enzymes in the human body require zinc to function.

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Significant demand from China to boost Zinc prices – by Yash Sawant (Economic Times/India Times – September 22, 2020)

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/

Yash Sawant is Research Associate, Angel Broking Ltd.

Zinc, the galvanizing metal, surged over 7 per cent and 5 per cent on the LME and MCX respectively since August’20 as the recovery narrative continues to be the solid expansion in China’s economy and massive liquidity infused by global central banks.

Another supporting element for the industrial metal prices was the plummeting US dollar. The accommodative stance adopted by the US Federal Reserve indicated a low interest environment for a prolonged period, which kept the greenback under pressure, making the industrial metals cheaper for other currency holders.

China: The recovery pillar

Zinc and the other industrial metals continued to post strong gains majorly reflecting the steady growth in China whilst the rest of the world struggled recovering from the pandemic led economic slump.

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Recovering Chinese steel output is boosting zinc price over short term – by Marleny Arnoldi (Mining Weekly – September 8, 2020)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

On the back of a stronger-than-expected rebound in economic growth in China, research agency Fitch Solutions Macro Research has revised upward its zinc price forecast for the year.

Initially, the agency anticipated a $2 100/t zinc price, but has revised it to $2 200/t, compared with a zinc price of $2 507/t at the end of 2019.

Zinc prices had fallen by 17.3% on average over the first three months of this year, but have since recovered to post new highs for the year, at a current price of about $2 483/t.

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As Arctic warming accelerates, permafrost thaw hits Red Dog mine with $20 million bill – by Nathaniel Herz (KNBA.org – September 8, 2020)

https://www.knba.org/

The multinational company that operates the massive Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska says that thawing permafrost linked to global warming has forced it to spend nearly $20 million to manage its water storage and discharge.

The problems at Red Dog, one of the world’s largest zinc mines, show how climate change poses a challenge not just to residents of Arctic Alaska, but also to the economy of the region, which is warming at triple the rate of the global average.

Vancouver-based Teck Resources Ltd. says that permafrost thaw in the watershed surrounding Red Dog is releasing higher natural levels of dissolved minerals and other particles into streams.

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ZINC-LEAD: Osisko Metals’ PEA for Pine Point suggests large-scale operation (Canadian Mining Journal – June 16, 2020)

http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

NORTHWEST TERRITORIES – A preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for Osisko Metals’ wholly owned Pine Point project outlines an 11,250 t/d open-pit and underground operation, mining 47 small open pits and eight high-grade shallow underground deposits.

The proposed 10-year mine would produce an average of 327 million lb. of zinc and 143 million lb. of lead annually at estimated cash costs of US67¢ per lb. of zinc-equivalent (including smelting, transport and royalties).
With a total initial capital cost of $555.7 million, the after-tax net present value estimate for the project, at an 8% discount rate, stands at $500 million with a 29.6% internal rate of return based on estimated life-of-mine zinc and lead prices of US$1.15 per lb. and US95¢ per lb., respectively.

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This Yukon First Nation wants to use native plants to help remediate abandoned mine sites – by Julien Gignac (The Narwhal – June 13, 2020)

The Narwhale

With unreclaimed mine sites littering Kaska territory, the community of Ross River is hatching a plan to help solve the problem: an industrial-scale nursery replete with native plants.

In southeastern Yukon, the Faro, Ketza and Wolverine mines have all seen their owners go bankrupt, leaving behind contamination and hefty cleanup tabs. Here, the community of Ross River, which is less than 180 kilometres away from all three mines, sees an opportunity.

The native plant nursery will be the first of its kind in Yukon, according to the project’s organizers, with a scale and mandate of supporting major reclamation projects that sets it apart from other nurseries in the territory.

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Column: London tin squeezed as supply shock outweighs demand hit – by Andy Home (Reuters U.K. – May 22, 2020)

https://uk.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – Tightness has returned to the London Metal Exchange (LME) tin contract. Stocks are low and falling. Time-spreads have moved back to backwardation.

This is, to some extent, business as usual for the London tin market, a low-liquidity contract where brokers sometimes struggle to match lending and borrowing flows.

But it’s still a surprising outcome given a macro backdrop of sliding manufacturing activity around the world as COVID-19 takes its toll on economic as well as human health.

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Column: EU’s industrial strategy is being wrecked by coronavirus – by Andy Home (Reuters U.K. – May 20, 2020)

https://uk.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – German zinc producer Metallwerk Dinslaken (MWD) has just announced it is closing. You’d be forgiven for not noticing.

The news didn’t register with the London Metal Exchange (LME) zinc price. The company is too small with just 41 employees and annual production of 25,000 tonnes, a metallic drop in the 13.5-million-tonne global zinc ocean.

It’s also a secondary processor, converting scrap back into refined metal, and the notoriously opaque recycling sector doesn’t feature much in zinc’s market narrative. Yet companies such as MWD are supposed to be the beating heart of the European Union’s (EU) newly-unveiled industrial strategy.

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COLUMN- As demand implodes, the zinc supply chain starts to adjust – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – May 12, 2020)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, May 12 (Reuters) – The London Metal Exchange (LME) zinc price has bounced by 20% from its March low of $1,685 a tonne to $2,020.

This is part of a broader mini-recovery across the base metals complex as the market focuses on the supply shock running alongside the demand shock caused by the spread of the coronavirus.

Lockdowns and quarantine measures have taken a particularly heavy toll of the zinc supply chain, with mine closures in key producer countries such as Peru and Mexico.

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Sense of Place: With One Last Stick of Dynamite, Two Miners Decided Joplin’s Fate – by Claire Kidwell (KSMU.org – June 18, 2018)

https://www.ksmu.org/

Today, the City of Joplin is a thriving hub for health care and transportation. But there was a time when it was no more than a collection of tents huddled around a series of mines.

Walking into the Joplin History Museum, you’re greeted by the two resident cats who watch over the building—and an entire wing designed to look like an old mine.

Old mining equipment rests in the front lawn. It’s immediately obvious how much the mining industry once influenced the area.

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The rise and fall of mining in the Patagonia Mountains – by Clara Migoya (El Inde – May 9, 2020)

https://arizonasonoranewsservice.com/

In a lot on Harshaw Avenue, off-road trucks line up in neat rows. The small town of Patagonia is seeing new activity in the nearby mountains now that South32, an Australian mining company, is running round-the-clock mineral drilling operations at the Hermosa-Taylor mine.

“The Taylor deposit, just by scale, is probably the largest undeveloped zinc deposit in the world,” said Pat Risner, president of the Hermosa project. “It’s a very strategic resource for this country.”

The Hermosa operation started more than a decade ago, when it was owned by Arizona Mining Inc., which did initial explorations and pre-feasibility studies. In 2018, South32 bought the company and all its mining claims for $1.3 billion.

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Column: Collapsing auto sector a body blow for industrial metals – by Andy Home – Reuters U.K. – March 27, 2020)

https://uk.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – France’s Recylex has just announced the temporary closure of both its German lead smelter and two battery-recycling plants, one in Germany and one in France.

The decision is due to a “strong drop in demand, especially in the automotive sector, in a context of sharply lower metal prices,” the company said. It will surely not be the last lead producer to mothball its production facilities.

Lead is umbilically tied to the automotive sector. Lead-acid batteries account for around 80% of global usage of the metal. And carmakers just about everywhere have halted their own production lines due to the spread of the coronavirus and the lockdowns on activity that have followed in its wake.

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