Zinc

Canadian Silvercorp Metals (TSX: SVM-News)(NYSE: SVM-News), China’s biggest silver miner, said Monday that production at its flagship silver-lead-zinc Ying Mine will be interrupted for about five days as a result of power interruptions.

I'm not all that thrilled to be owning Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX) right now. While the company's stock has tended to be highly correlated to the price of copper, that correlation has slipped a bit. I'm guessing this has a lot to do with the violence and labor disputes at the company's Grasberg mine in Indonesia.

Peru's government declared a 30-day state of emergency on Monday night after two people were killed and dozens of police officers injured in violent anti-mining protests against Swiss based-Xstrata near Cuzco, in south eastern Peru.

Copper edged higher on Monday on hopes of more stimulus from China, and after Greek conservative parties topped opinion polls, helping calm fears over contagion should Athens default on its debt and leave the euro.

Xstrata is paying nearly a million dollars into a program to improve the wellbeing of retired and injured miners.

Australian copper producer OZ Minerals has struck a deal with Canada's International PBX Ventures for a 90% interest in the Copaquire copper-molybdenum property in Chile.

Canadian miner Selwyn Resources (CVE:SWN) stocks were falling almost 17% this morning as the company said it was evaluating a smaller tonnage mine plan for its flagship zinc and lead project in Yukon, northern Canada.

Smaller miners are waiting for production cutbacks by the market leaders to prop up prices the way Saudi-Arabia comes to the rescue of oil producing nations whenever the crude price begins to flag.

The prospectus giving details of the creation of a $90 billion mining and commodities trading behemoth will find its way to the inboxes of shareholders this week.