ASX Zinc players list, page-330

Thats a pretty accurate summary FiendishRedbeard of the state of play as it appears at this point in time. I would also just add to that:

CZL nice small high grade project in Mexico but very slow and halting progress with market losing patience

The general lack of direction for a lot of base metal prices isn't helping, along with the continued issue of a general lack of transparency around stockpiles and the Glencore overhang effect. None of these things have changed the lack of supply response, and its still instructive to keep an eye on the concentrate markets and the state of the Zinc refining industry to see that elusive supply squeeze possibly play out in the future.

Your comments about the S32 acquisition of the Canadian stuff are interesting, are you saying that in your opinion that they may have overpaid? I imagine that there are a lot of different directions that S32 could choose to expand and it depends on how "counter cyclical" they want to be. For the S32 guys there must be a wide selection of base metals and other assets that they could look at, from Nickel to Copper and all the way through to other more industrial minerals so I would imagine that Zinc probably isn't top of their list.

One thing that has not changed is that current Zinc Lead mines continue to deplete and no sizeable supply is coming in (or expected to arrive) anytime soon.

It may still be years away for all we know, but when the supply squeeze (price spike) inevitably happens there won't be any easy or quick capacity to step in and enjoy the higher prices.