China to shutdown 26 zinc & lead mines...CZX is a strong buy...due to safety and environmental concerns.
Another bullish signal for zinc. KingKyle -- AZ is in fact NOT as advanced as CZX. AZ has only had 25 to 30 holes and has an inferred resource. It also does not have all necessary permits. CZX has over 100 holes in the deposit, over 70% of the resource is in the Indicated (higher confidence) category and they have their UG exploration permits. CZX should be trading 5 times higher than it is today compared to AZ......in time, the market will understand this and we'll see a nice run up to about $1.50 in CZX.
Beijing has ordered the shutdown of all lead and zinc mines in parts of Hunan province, the centre of Chinese production.
The local government shut down the power to 26 zinc and lead mines in the area due to safety and environmental concerns. The ban will be in place until June next year reports Platts News:
Zinc is the best performing base metal so far this year and measured from its multi-year low struck mid-January the zinc prize is up 54%.
Zinc's prospects brightened considerably after the shutdown of two major mines last year – Australia's Century and the Lisheen mine in Ireland. The two mines had a combined output of more than 630,000 tonnes per annum.
China is forecast to have a mined zinc deficit of 390,000 mt in 2016, widening from a deficit of 9,000 mt a year ago, state-owned Chinese metals consultancy Beijing Antaike said in its zinc sector report issued in end-June.
China has been increasing imports due to dwindling domestic supply – imports rose 48% to 292,000 tonnes in the six months to June from a year ago according to customs data. Reuters reports falling stocks and predictions of a 221,000 tonne market deficit are also lifting sentiment:
Key to market psychology has been the concentrate market, which has tightened to the extent that treatment charges, fees paid by miners to smelters to process raw material into metal have tumbled towards $100 a tonne from above $200 in April 2015.