LONDON (Reuters) – “The most critical issue facing the zinc market is the performance of zinc smelters and Chinese zinc smelters in particular.” A potential smelter bottleneck topped research house Wood Mackenzie’s January zinc list of “Things to look for in 2019”.
And so it has proved. The world’s zinc mines lifted production by 1.9% in the first half of this year, according to the latest statistical bulletin from the International Lead and Zinc Study Group.
However, world refined metal production fell by 0.4% over the same period. The surprise is that it’s not Chinese smelters that have been having problems, but rather those in the rest of the world.
As the worldwide deficit in zinc production grows, several zinc-lead mining projects across northern Canada await construction of access arteries needed to deliver their ore to market. The projects are among the world’s most attractive and represent a base metals treasure trove coveted by would-be developers and end users alike.
Recent funding from the Canadian government and other public and private sources could unlock the floodgates to critical infrastructure development needed to spur base metals mining in Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
In mid-August, the Government of Canada, two territorial governments and the Kitikmeot Inuit Association agreed to commit more than C$60 million to the Slave Corridor Project, an initiative aimed at kickstarting development in the mineral-rich and underdeveloped Slave Geological Province, with construction of new roads and a deep-water port.
Global mined zinc production is expected to continue ramping up over the coming years as elevated prices encourage miners to restart idled capacity and start production at key new mines, Fitch Solutions Macro Research said this week.
In its ‘Outlook for Zinc Mining’, published on Tuesday, Fitch Solutions Macro Research said that, while some capacity had been taken off line during 2015 and 2016, owing to permanent mine closures, the return of some stalled capacity and new projects in key countries would drive growth over the coming quarters.
Fitch Solutions Macro Research forecast that global zinc mine production will increase by 1.6% year-on-year to 13.2-million tonnes this year, before increasing to 15.7-million tonnes by 2028, averaging 1.9% growth a year.
The stock market has not been kind of late to Trevali Mining Corp. (TSX:TV). The Vancouver-based zinc miner has doubled in size since acquiring two zinc mines from Glencore Plc in 2017, bumping it to mid-tier miner status, with a global head count of about 2,000.
It now has four operating zinc mines – one in New Brunswick, one in Peru and two in Africa (Namibia and Burkina Faso). Normally, that kind of production growth would be a good reason to hold onto a mining stock. But the company’s share price has recently fallen to below $0.20 from $1.68 at the end of January 2018.
Trevali is not the only zinc miner to experience a stock market pummelling. Glencore PLC (LON:GLEN), one of the world’s largest zinc producers, has suffered a 45% decline in share value since January 2018.
POOL, United Kingdom – Cornwall’s last tin mine closed 20 years ago. Now growing demand for metals from ethical sources could spark a revival in one of Britain’s most deprived regions.
Once the mining center of the world, Cornwall is dotted with more than 2,000 derelict engine houses, many of them along its rugged coastline. Tin mining and smelting in this southwest corner of rural England dates back thousands of years. But in the late 19th century, when new deposits were discovered in East Asia and South America, English tin became uncompetitive and Cornish miners scattered overseas in search of new prospects.
Cornwall has struggled ever since. It is the second-poorest region in Northern Europe, according to EU data, and it struggles with higher rates of child poverty and homelessness than the rest of the United Kingdom. Now its fortunes may be looking up again. Ruined tin mines could be revived because tech companies and carmakers are racing to find ethical sources of the metal. And the last mine to close —South Crofty — could be the first to reopen.
LONDON (Reuters) – Fears of a global recession are rising. Industrial metals such as copper are struggling to make any price headway as funds take an increasingly negative view of where the global manufacturing economy is heading.
The tiny tin market seems to be already trading as if recession were a reality. London Metal Exchange (LME) tin lurched sharply lower at the beginning of July and has kept falling ever since, touching a fresh three-year low of $16,255 per tonne on Monday.
That’s lower than the Global Financial Crisis sell-off in 2009 and the price is now approaching the decade’s lows seen over the 2015-2016 metallic bear market.
Talks on Poldark and beach art are among the free activities helping families learn more about the the mining history of Perranporth.
Experts have been studying the little-known mining history of the vulnerable cliffs overlooking the beach at Perranporth, to show if the search for tin and copper in the area began in medieval or even prehistoric times.
Thousands of visitors enjoy the town’s beach each year, but many don’t realise that many of the caves and huge rock arches in the cliffs are man-made. The coast was used for mining rather than leisure in the past, with the solid rock being tunnelled through by miners.
Distrust between Serbia and Kosovo remains intact two decades after the Kosovo war. In 2008, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia. Till date, Serbia refuses to recognise the independence of Kosovo despite the fact that most Member States of European Union (EU) have done so. Moreover, the independence of Kosovo has also been recognised by USA and 100 other countries.
Territorial disputes are at the forefront of strained relations between Serbia and Kosovo. European Union has been acting as a mediator in the conflict. In 2011, EU facilitated the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, which can be classified a process-oriented approach rather than an outcome-oriented approach.
The mediation efforts of EU have produced a series of agreements between the two sides but many conflict issues remain unresolved. The ownership structure of Trepca Mining Complex is one of such issues.
Rockcliff Metal’s founder Ken LaPierre at the 2019 PDAC Mining Convention. A $29 Million financing has turbo-charged junior Rockcliff Metals, which plans to complete over 100,000 metres of exploration drilling over next 18 months. Rockcliff is the 2nd largest landholder in the legendary Flin Flon/Snow Lake greenstone belt in Northern Manitoba after HudBay Minerals. (Photo by Stan Sudol)
Northern Miner
At the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention in Toronto in March 2018, Rockcliff Metals (CSE: RCLF) was a struggling junior with a large land package in the lesser known but geologically rich Flin Flon–Snow Lake (FF–SL) greenstone belt, with eight high-grade, base-metal volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposits and five gold properties.
It began as a tough year for Rockcliff, and it turned even rougher the week before the PDAC convention, when Kenneth Lapierre, Rockcliff’s president and CEO at the time, slipped on freshly fallen snow when taking out the garbage at home.
Not thinking much about his sore ankle, the six-foot-three-inch, former hockey-playing, karate-practising jock then started shovelling the driveway. Twelve hours later, the swelling and pain in his ankle demanded a trip to the doctor, where he learned that it was broken, and that he had torn all the soft tissue.
LONDON, July 8 (Reuters) – The tin market was last week rudely awakened from its previous range-trading slumber. On the London Metal Exchange (LME), three-month tin collapsed 7% over the course of Tuesday to $17,585 per tonne, the lowest print since August 2016.
It has since clawed its way back to a current $18,350 but looks susceptible to further selling by technical and momentum funds. The chart picture looks even worse in Shanghai, where the bear attack was sprung amid a build in short positioning and a spike in trading activity.
Such extreme moves are not unusual in the tiny tin market, where a bit of volume can push prices a long way. It’s tempting to explain the price collapse through a fundamental prism of rising LME stocks and Chinese exports but, as ever with the tin market, appearances can be highly deceptive.
Rockcliff Metals founder, Ken Lapierre, holding rich core samples from Manitoba’s Flin Flon – Snow Lake greenstone belt.
At Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) 2018 mining convention, Rockcliff Metals was a typical struggling junior with a great land package in the lesser known but geologically-rich Flin Flon – Snow Lake (FF-SL) greenstone belt with eight high-grade VMS base-metal deposits and five promising lode-gold properties.
It was starting out to be a tough year and unfortunately an even rougher start the week before the convention when Rockcliff CEO Ken Lapierre slipped on the freshly fallen snow, when he was taking out the garbage. Not thinking much about his sore ankle, the six-foot, three inch, former hockey playing, karate practising jock, started shoveling the driveway. Twelve hours later, the swelling and pain in his left ankle demanded a trip to the doctor where he learned that it was broken and that he had torn all the soft tissue.
For the entire PDAC convention, the largest and most important in the world, for juniors to meet potential future investors and current shareholders and financiers, Lapierre had to use a knee walker that resembled a scooter to get around, along with a substantial amount of painkillers.
LONDON (Reuters) – The London zinc market is in the grip of the most protracted and acute squeeze in 30 years. On the London Metal Exchange (LME), the benchmark spread — the difference between the cash price and that for three-month delivery — flexed as wide as $161 per tonne this week before closing on Wednesday at $149.
If you want a historic precedent, you’ll have to go back as far as 1989. A flash squeeze in 1997 saw the cash-to-threes spread hit $263 but it was over in a matter of weeks. Only the rolling tightness of the late 1980s bears any comparison to current market dynamics.
Then, as now, the core issue was low stocks in the LME warehousing system. Inventory was less than 1,000 tonnes at one stage in 1988, although it was a very different market back then.
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – An owner of Uganda’s only tungsten mine is suing the International Tin Association for defamation, saying the certifier wrongly accused it of trading in conflict minerals, court documents seen by Reuters show.
The association’s International Tin Supply Chain Initiative (ITSCI) program, used by companies such as Apple, was introduced after the 2008 financial crisis to certify minerals in response to regulation which obliged U.S. companies to vet their supply chains.
The International Tin Association’s Kay Nimmo, who leads the ITSCI program, said in an email she had no immediate comment.
Most recent studies suggest that the Lincoln cent is wasteful. Contemporary analyses suggest that it costs several times a cent’s face value to produce, and most consumers find them a nuisance. But is there a hidden cost behind the continued production of the cent? Climate scientists think so.
According to an article published by the Smithsonian and research by students at the University of California Davis, production of the cent produces considerable greenhouse gas emissions and other toxic waste.
The current cent’s alloy, 95 percent zinc plated with 5 percent copper requires mining both materials in massive quantities. Each ton of copper produced releases 2.45 tons of carbon dioxide, one of the gases that causes climate change, and each ton of zinc produced releases .58 tons of the same, according to the scientists.
Like many single-industry towns, once the well dries up, people seek greener pastures. However, the residents of a place many probably have never even heard of hold on to the remnants of their past. For them, it was an important and irreplaceable land, it was their home.
Pine Point, Northwest Territories, was a town located 10 kilometers (6 miles) inland from the south shore of Great Slave Lake and 87 kilometers (54 miles) east of Hay River. Cominco Ltd. (now Teck Resources Ltd.) explored the area around Pine Point as early as 1929 but it wouldn’t be for at least thirty years until development would begin and the plans for a settlement established. Production started in 1965.
Cominco built its own townsite which became known as Pine Point. It became a territorial settlement with private businesses and boasted a population of nearly 2,000 at its peak. By the mid-1980s depressed prices caused economic difficulties for the mine. Cominco shut down operations in the summer of 1987, although it continued to mill until the following spring.
