From the $939bn invested in major projects between 2008 and 2017, the world’s top 40 mining companies by market cap. wrote-off $273bn or 29% of the initial capital outlay.
Expectations for a rise in zinc concentrate supplies in coming years have driven down the metal price to one-year lows, but smelting capacity constraints suggest the sell-off is premature.
Nobody who owns a copper mine wants to give it up. Even when Glencore and Anglo American Plc were crippled by debt during the 2015 commodity slump, neither was willing to entertain an offer from Rio for their holdings in the giant Collahuasi deposit in Chile.
Starting on July 30, the LME will start providing a set of synthetic monthly prices for the six main base metals — copper, aluminum, zinc, lead, nickel and tin.