announcement getting closer.

Hi All.

Since the announcement re the "in-principle agreement with a key third party" for the IMRP three weeks of the six weeks to the 31 Oct have gone.

While we wait for the announcement to be made things are happening at zinc mines and projects. Both of the following are from Kitco this morning.

SRA temporarily shelves Tennessee zinc mines on weak prices

Washington (Platts)--9Oct2008
Strategic Resource Acquisition said Thursday it would temporarily
close its Mid-Tennessee zinc mining complex, a move reflecting one more
casualty of the beleaguered zinc market.

The Gordonsville, Tennessee-based site will be placed on a temporary care
and maintenance program, the company said in a statement. "We intend to
restructure our obligations and capital requirements to facilitate restarting
the operations when prudent," SRA President Victor Wyprysky said in a
statement. "The Cumberland and Elmwood mines are well advanced towards
start-up and we have taken Gordonsville further than it has ever produced
historically. It is regrettable that the perfect storm in commodity and
liquidity conditions have converged at this late stage of our ramp up."

SRA said its decision followed an extensive economic evaluation "that
leave little support for the continuation of operations under the current
commodity pricing and credit market environments." The company said that,
since the Gordonsville mine's April startup, cash costs per pound of payable
zinc have substantially outpaced prevailing commodity prices.

Since its launch, the Gordonsville site was producing 15 million pounds
of zinc, and was nearing a 3,000 mt/day output, SRA said. The miner said it
has invested roughly $150 million in the project.

The move comes when two other SRA mines, the Cumberland and Elmwood
sites, were just months away from beginning production, according to the
Toronto-based company, but the relentless zinc price slump has also rendered
those mines' launch "uneconomic."

As part of the shutdown process, the miner said it would cut staff to a
level needed for care and maintenance, and would expend the necessary capital
toward activities like dewatering the mine.




Russian Copper Co freezes zinc, nickel projects

YEKATERINBURG, Russia, Oct 10 (Reuters) - The Russian Copper Company has temporarily shelved separate projects to expand into nickel and build a zinc plant with a rival miner due to the global financial crisis, a company spokesman said on Friday. The company, Russia's third-largest copper producer, said all existing projects would continue to operate and that no production cuts were planned.

Cheers.