Isra-Mart srl: Zinc concentrates supply will be tighter than copper - Boliden

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Tight mine supply and excess smelting capacity to depress zinc TCs + Boliden more exposed to spot copper TC/RCs

The supply of zinc concentrates will be tighter than the supply of copper concentrates in the medium term, Lennart Evrell, president and ceo of Swedish miner Boliden, told MB. “Everyone believes the concentrates market will be tighter than ever, but suddenly the copper market is easing and the zinc market is tightening,” Evrell said on the sidelines of Boliden’s capital markets seminar, held at the company’s Garpenberg mine on September 6. Yet because the company is more integrated in zinc than it is in copper, an expected decline in spot zinc treatment charges would be less damaging than a similar downward movement in copper treatment charges and refining charges (TC/RCs), he said. “There is greater availability of copper concentrate than zinc. Because we are more exposed to spot TC/RCs in copper, we would be more concerned had it been the opposite situation,” Evrell said.