a Toronto-based metals miner, said Tuesday thatit anticipates a...

a Toronto-based metals miner, said Tuesday that
it anticipates a global copper-market deficit in 2006 due to production
disruptions at various mines around the world.

Falconbridge forecasts a 2006 copper-market deficit of 100,000 to 120,000
metric tons, "which is a bit of a change from what we had before," a company
official told analysts and reporters during a teleconference and Webcast to
discuss the company's first-quarter results.

"In copper, the production disruptions that we've seen at operations (are)
across a broad spectrum - but all of that kind of adds up to some numbers that,
in this type of market, (have) an impact," the official said.

A number of supply disruptions, plus threats of more, have occurred in
Indonesia, Mexico and South America. This, combined with fund and investment
buying, pushed copper to record highs Tuesday on both the Comex division of the
New York Mercantile Exchange and the London Metal Exchange.

Falconbridge also forecasts a 12,000-ton market deficit in 2006 for nickel,
he said, and a 400,000-ton deficit in the zinc market.

Aaron Regent, president of Falconbridge, said the soaring metals prices have
been caught in a "perfect storm" in which global economic growth, robust
physical demand, production disruptions, critically low inventories, new-supply
constraints and increasing investment from the fund community have bolstered
the market.
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