"Zinc prices are going to explode", page-2

Its a really interesting space to follow at the moment. I'm not sure if you're aware of this upmarket, but Century mine has pumped out close to 100Mt of ore @ 10% zinc over its mine life, with a metallurgical recovery of close to 80% throughout. It is speculated that there could be as much as 1.5 to 2Mt of zinc metal residing in their tailings dams at the moment. There is the chance that this recent rise in the spot price could make it economic to reprocess these tailings and then sell further zinc on market. These tailings are only concentrated at about 1.5% zinc so the price of zinc would need to be around $2500/t for this to become viable. If this came on-line, however, it would go some way to filling some of the supply void that is predicted over the next couple of years. You will also begin to see some zinc mines re-evaluate their ore reserves if this run continues, which in turn will allow current operations to increase their output of zinc - for example George Fisher, Cannington, Rosebery etc. Polymetallic mines that have the ability to do this, such as Rosebery in Tasmania, will almost certainly capitalise on this opportunity. Many analysts have not seem to have taken this possibility into account with their price forecasts!