Sorry for the delay in sending you this report DIONYSUS. I have...

Sorry for the delay in sending you this report DIONYSUS. I have now sent it to you together with their latest reasearch which came out yesterday following ZFX Dec production report.

I will be holding ZFX for some time.
check this article out from bloomberg today. here is the link but i have copied the article anyway.

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=22&art_id=11030&sid=6457870&con_type=1

"Record zinc prices on global shortage

Zinc prices have risen so fast that Robin Bhar, a metals analyst for 22 years, is about to raise his forecast for the second time in two months.

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Zinc prices have risen so fast that Robin Bhar, a metals analyst for 22 years, is about to raise his forecast for the second time in two months.
"We've all been left behind," said Bhar, who follows the market in London for UBS. "It's just phenomenal. No one in their wildest imagination thought it would get to these levels."

Zinc for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange was US$6 (HK$46.8) lower at US$2,244 a tonne in early trade Monday. It traded at US$2,320 Thursday, the 11th consecutive day the metal rose to a record.

Little relief is in sight, as mining companies restrain investment in expanding output and China stops exports and begins imports of the metal. "There is a global shortage," said Greig Gailey, chief executive officer of Melbourne- based Zinifex, the world's second- largest zinc supplier.

"New mine development is a lengthy process and it's difficult to see new mines coming on stream in the short to medium term." His company has no new mines planned until 2008 at the earliest.

Driving the market is China, stoking demand for zinc, used as a rust-resistant coating for steel in buildings, cars and appliances.

Pension funds and speculators are joining the rally in zinc and metals including copper, aluminum and gold, seeking an alternative to stocks and bonds. The Reuters Jefferies CRB Index, which tracks commodity futures, gained 17 percent last year, compared with a 3 percent increase in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index of US companies.

"Two, three, four, five years ago, we would have seen that with the hedge funds, but not the big state pension funds," said Bob Diamond, chief executive officer of Barclays Capital. "We are seeing an asset class shift." The shortage of zinc is a legacy of lower prices in the past and a lack of investment by the industry. Prices dropped to a record low of US$742 a tonne in August 2002, prompting mine closures and leaving producers such as France's Metaleurop bankrupt.

London-based Anglo American and Xstrata are now struggling to meet the world's zinc needs. Labor disputes this month at Mexico's Industrias Penoles and mines run by Peru's Volcan Cia Minera have added to concern that zinc production will lag behind demand this year. Inventory will drop this year as demand outpaces supply from the world's mines. Nick Hatch, an analyst at Investec Securities in London, estimates zinc use will exceed global production this year by 310,000 tonnes. The stockpiles monitored by the LME have declined by 40 percent in the past month to 375,750 tonnes.

"There is a dearth of new projects as a consequence of a lack of exploration," said Alan Heap, Citibank's Sydney-based director of commodity analysis. "Deficits are set to persist."

Heap, who said in 2005 that metal markets were entering a "super cycle" jump in prices, last week raised Citibank's first-half average zinc price forecast 44 percent to 97.5 cents a pound, or US$2,150 a tonne.

Morgan Stanley this month raised its 2006 zinc forecast 12 percent to 95 cents a pound, or US$2,094 a tonne.

Zinc is already up 18 percent this year. The price was forecast to rise 21 percent for the whole of 2006, averaging US$1,666 a tonne, according to the median estimate of 24 analysts polled by Bloomberg.

"We expect the deficit to persist into 2007, implying a price peak may be over a year away," said Simon Toyne, an analyst in London at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.

China became a net importer of zinc in 2004 as its economy boomed, according to Canada's Teck Cominco.

The nation's zinc demand jumped 16 percent to 2.7 million tonnes in the first 11 months of 2005. BLOOMBERG "