Categories: Base Metals / General Market Commentary
Topics: General Base Metals / General Market Commentary

Largest Zinc Mining Locations

Largest Zinc Mining Locations


Rampura Agucha, Red Dog and Mount Isa are the top three zinc mines in the world.

Last year was an exciting year for zinc, the best-performing LME metal, with prices surging almost 60 percent. That said, market participants are optimistic about the base metal this year, as supply falls and demand continues to rise.

In November, a growing demand from China and speculations about the US president Trump’s infrastructure plans supported the steepest climb for the metal since 2009, with prices reaching a peak of $2,985 per tonne.

Currently prices are sitting at $2,768.57 per tonne, but analysts and CEO continue to be positive about the metal’s prospects for 2017.

On the supply side, the closure of two main mines in 2015, Century and Lisheen, that together produced approximately 0.6 million tonnes of mined metal, had a big impact on the market.

Production cuts from other mines, including Glencore (LON:GLEN) and Nyrstar (BRE:NYR) also allowed prices to soar. To add to the curbed supply, China has recently ordered the closure of 26 smaller mines due to environmental concerns.

With that in mind, it’s interesting to look at the world’s three top zinc mines and, without further ado, here’s an overview of each of them.

1. Rampura Agucha mine, India
2015 fiscal year production: 640,845 MT contained zinc

The Rampura Agucha mine in Rajasthan, India is the world’s largest zinc mine. The open-cast/underground mine has an ore production capacity of 6.15 million MT per year, and in India’s 2015 fiscal year (April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015) produced 698,232 MT of mined metal, including 640,845 MT of contained zinc and 57,387 MT of contained lead.

As of the end of March 2015, the mine’s total reserves and resources sat at 103 million MT. Rampura Agucha was first commissioned in 1991, and is currently undergoing an expansion. The expansion will see underground ore production capacity ramp up to 3.75 million MT per year.

Hindustan Zinc (BSE:500188), that owns and operates the mine, recently announced that its zinc mined metal production was 276,000 tonnes, higher by 21 percent compared with the third quarter of the 2016 fiscal year. The company, part of Vedanta Group (LSE:VED), said they are on track to achieve stated guidance of higher mined metal production in 2017 fiscal year compared to the previous year.  

2. Red Dog mine, Alaska
2014 production: 596,000 tonnes of zinc

To continue reading please click link http://investingnews.com/daily/resource-investing/base-metals-investing/zinc-investing/the-worlds-top-3-zinc-mines-an-overview/?mqsc=E3869811