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Gold/Mining/Energy : ZINC The base metal. News and Views. Symbol Zn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mr. Aloha who wrote (1322)	5/19/2006 1:47:30 PM
From: TheSlowLane	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3270

That article actually did a good job of providing an overview of Teck. For a small investor, it's a great way of getting exposure to zinc, copper, gold, oil sands (and nickel, if they snag Inco) all in one. Teck just raised their dividend to $2/share, so there's that, too.

To: Mr. Aloha who wrote (1322)	5/23/2006 8:19:41 AM
From: Mr. Aloha	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3270

I just noticed, in the recent MMGG letter to shareholders (http://www.metalin.com/Presidents%20Letter%205-01-06.doc), that the two biggest mines expected to start production in the next five years (besides MMGG's mine in Mexico) are in Iran and Bolivia, two very unstable regions. If there's a war in Iran and if Bolivia nationalizes the mines in their country, the "zinc crisis" could become very dire. In addition, Yukon Zinc's recent feasibility study fiasco means there's a very good chance their zinc mine doesn't get financed, removing another potential mine that could help try to replace all the production that will be lost from mine closures in coming years. Given that there's already a crisis, and even with these mines there won't be enough zinc produced to match even current production, the crisis will get much worse, IMO. China and India's growth will require a lot more zinc, which is not easily replaceable like some of copper can be. For most applications (e.g., galvanized steel), zinc is only a tiny portion of product costs, so there shouldn't be high price sensitivity to curtail demand. Hold on to those zinc stocks.