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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold and Silver Juniors, Mid-tiers and Producers -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: que seria who wrote (34557)	2/28/2007 10:42:41 PM
From: koan	Respond to of 78421

Everything I have read for months now and every chart I have looked at of zinc supplus and demand shows increaasing zinc deficits, not increasing surpluse; and lots of mothballing coming up. No one was even exploring for zinc until a year or so ago as it was about .20 a lb. The lack of zinc mines has been known for year. Nickel, zinc-those are the metals!

To: que seria who wrote (34557)	2/28/2007 11:16:11 PM
From: jackjc	Respond to of 78421

MMG is lagging because pieces of the 12+M sh PP came free trading on Jan 4, Jan 20, Feb 6, and this week. And with the 1 yr 300+% gain it is natural for many to want to take profits, and at 15% tax rate in US this is understandable. From what I see of the resource, metallurgy, etc, MMG does not need higher zinc prices to be immensely profitable. There are plenty of other jr zn explorers more suited for speculation on commodity price. MMG primarily needs to complete the fease and show the numbers work with the low zn prices the banks will use. (About .70 now, but somewhat higher later). A 1.00 price would be super IMO. Any high prices at the time would just add speculative value.

To: que seria who wrote (34557)	3/1/2007 12:20:19 AM
From: Mr. Aloha	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 78421

You need zinc ore or concentrate from mines to produce refined zinc. To meet demand, China significantly ramped up their refining/smelting capacity the last couple of years, as the article states. They don't have enough mine output to feed their smelters, so they have to import huge amounts of concentrate: Concentrate imports to China also rose in 2006, by a staggering 47% the analyst said, to 400,000 mt contained in zinc. Imports of ore in concentrate in the first half amounted to 284,000 mt, while in the second half, imports rose to 554,000 mt. "We are also forecasting a large increase in 2007," she said. To me, the key is that China imports a lot more concentrate than they export refined zinc, so they're a net importer of zinc, despite what the headlines say about refined zinc. In any case, the global supply/demand deficit situation is dire and about to get even worse, with a sparse pipeline of big zinc projects for the next few years. China needs to import huge amounts of zinc concentrate, but there isn't enough zinc mine production to meet their huge demand.

To: que seria who wrote (34557)	3/1/2007 12:27:55 AM
From: marcos	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78421

Interesting, i missed that earlier ... and, didn't realise Coffin's comment there was from november, just tripped across it clicking around SI Metalline has mostly oxide zinc of course, so its ore needs not a smelter but a solvent electro-winning refinery, which makes its metal cheaper to produce, and needs to be financed as part of development, this will be more of a cash hurdle than with the average mine, also more of an opportunity once accomplished ... anyway, as jack points out, mmg doesn't need anywhere near current prices to do well - Skorpion, the first mine/refinery built by GTI, did well at 50-cent Zn Everything i've seen indicates that ore supply from existing mines is on a downward curve, and there aren't nearly enough new mines to fill the gap ... maybe there are new mines in China we don't know about, that's possible ... one thing that's happened recently, was the Red Dog metal being shipped late, it comes out all in a whoosh of course, makes a bulge in supply, but only temporarily, now there will be no metal from there for over half a year ... also there was an oufit named Red Kite who were speculating in Zn, unwinding their positions had an effect ... so now where would new zinc come from? With nickel it is a lot less clear, to me anyway, just don't have a grasp of the likelihoods ... could there come a surge of the laterite metal stimulated by these prices, don't know ... and for sure this market has sent enough of a message that exploration for the sulphide has ramped up, results coming in already and they will increase ... eventually there will be surplus, just how long will that take is the question ... with zinc, several years, says my semi-informed opinion