RE: Any change for a smelter?Lets make it simple,
Say it a third party smelter, as it probably will. Say running smelter with coal is 50% more expensive than running it with hydro (it won't because there's capex to pay for, reagents, workforce etc. and of the smelters in China are coal powered). Even with that assumption, smelter costs would rise $100M annually, but transportation savings would be $150M (and more with current oil price). This is beginning to seem feasible to me, I'll run the numbers tomorrow. I like to use 0.8/lb Zn and 0.45/lb Pb, which were the consensus before USD started to loose it's value. Nominal metal prices would be higher now, but I don't bother to adjust, because costs had to be adjusted accordingly.
Joe, if you want to make all us a favor (and very good pump job for SWN,
, try to find opex difference of hydro smelter and coal smelter.