Recent Developments in the Zinc Market:

August 1, 2008: China cancelled export tax rebates of 5% on its super high-grade refined zinc.

July 17, 2008: Aim Resources, an Australian exploration company, said it had suspended plans to start mining at its Perkoa zinc project in Burkina Faso.

July 14, 2008: Teck Cominco said it would close its Lennard Shelf lead-zinc mine in western Australia in August. The mine had been due to stay operational until 2011 but its closure was brought forward following the collapse in zinc prices, rising mining costs, and the difficulties of operating in a stronger Australian dollar environment.

Aug 21, 2008: Hudbay Minerals announced plans to close its Balmat, New York zinc mine and concentrator citing it was not economically viable given current market conditions. The Balmat mine was reopened in 2005 based on a feasibility plan that assumed lower costs and higher levels of production than were achieved to date.

PROPERTIES AND OCCURRENCE

Pure zinc is a crystalline metal, insoluble in hot and cold water and soluble in alcohol, acids, and alkalies. It is extremely brittle at ordinary temperatures, but becomes malleable between 120° and 150°C (248° and 302°F) and may be rolled into sheets between heated rollers. Zinc is unaffected by dry air; in moist air it is oxidized and becomes coated with a carbonate film that protects it from further corrosion. Zinc melts at about 420°C (about 788°F), boils at about 907°C (about 1665°F), and has a specific gravity of 7.14. The atomic weight of zinc is 65.39.

Zinc ranks about 24th in abundance among the elements in Earth’s crust. It never occurs free in nature, but is found as zinc carbonate, ZnCO3, in the mineral smithsonite; as a mixed oxide of zinc and iron, Zn(FeO2)O2, in the mineral franklinite; as zinc sulfide, ZnS, in the mineral sphalerite, or zinc blende; as zinc oxide, ZnO, in the mineral zincite; and as zinc silicate, 2ZnO•SiO2H2O, in the mineral hemimorphite. The ores most commonly used as a source of zinc are smithsonite and sphalerite.

USES

The metal is used principally as a protective coating, or galvanizer, for iron and steel; as an ingredient of various alloys, especially brass; as plates for dry electric cells; and for die castings. Zinc oxide, known as zinc white or Chinese white, is used as a paint pigment. It is also used as a filler in rubber tires and is employed in medicine as an antiseptic ointment. Zinc chloride is used as a wood preservative and as a soldering fluid. Zinc sulfide is useful in applications involving electroluminescence, photoconductivity, and semiconductivity and has other electronic uses. It is employed as a phosphor for the screens of television tubes and in fluorescent coatings.