RE: Silver and zinc - bienciDidn't understand your $16.8/lb zinc "max it could go" but 12 pennies would be a closer example considering just the zinc content of a U.S. Penny ( 1 cent U.S.)
12 U.S. pennies = 1.04 oz of ZN content . For a pound weight use 16x . So, 192 penneys = 1.04 pounds of ZN (Roughly $1.92 per pound of Zinc) Anything over the $1.92/pound of zinc price is gravy if the pennies, themselves are used as the zinc supply!
Don't think this is not a concern to the U.S. mint --- just read an article from the New York Times that stated "This week the cost of the metals in a penny rose above eight-tenths of a cent, more than twice the value of last fall." "The government spends an additional six-tenths of a cent ... to make each penny"
So at this time, it costs the U.S. Govt 1.4 cents to make one penny with a face value of 1 cent. The NYT article went on to say "... could go back to making steel pennies, as it did during World War II, .." Just some fun calculations.
Nice recovery in Abcourt. Hope everyone got their orders filled.
Alchemist7