Owing to several significant zinc mines worldwide reaching their end of life, zinc might be in short supply, pushing the price upwards in the medium term, says International Zinc Association regional director for sub-Saharan Africa Rob White.
Midtier global resources company MMG’s Century mine, in Australia, which produces about 500 000 t/y of zinc concentrate, supplying about 4% of the world’s zinc, is due to shut down by the end of the year, White states.
Global diversified metals and mining company Vedanta’s Lisheen mine, in Ireland, and Skorpion mine, in Namibia, are also reaching the end of their life spans, he continues.
Further, multinational trading and mining company Glencore’s Brunswick and Perseverance zinc mines, both in Canada, have shut down in the past two years.
The net effect of these events will be a stretched supply of zinc in the medium term, paired with a robust demand for it, especially from industry.
White argues that this will cause an upward movement in the price of zinc.
“There is enough zinc in the ground so that if the prices were high enough, people would be interested in investing in new mines,” he adds.
White says there are new zinc mines being developed, such as Vedanta’s Gamsberg mine, the world’s largest known undeveloped zinc deposit, in South Africa’s Northern Cape, near the border of Namibia.
He adds that much of the output will be transported to the Skorpion mine, in Namibia, for processing.
However, he believes that, in the short term, there will be no drastic change in the price of zinc, which has shown little volatility in the past year.
He states that significant changes will occur only amid real-factor changes like the shut down of the Century mine.