[Newmont Announced Q1 2026 Production] On April 23, Newmont released its Q1 2026 report, which showed that its zinc concentrates production was 62,000 mt in Q1, up 35% YoY, mainly due to improved grade at the Peñasquito mine. Its zinc concentrates production guidance for 2026 was 220,000 mt.

During the May Day holiday in 2026, LME zinc traded in a general sideways range, finding solid support at the 40-day moving average. In terms of specific performance, LME zinc showed an N-shaped trend of rising first, then falling and rebounding again.

SMM Analysis: Maintenance Recovery & Falling Zinc TC Shape May Refined Lead Output Outlook SMM May 1 News: In April 2026, China's refined lead production continued its modest upward trend, rising 1.22% month-on-month and 3.01% year-on-year.

Lead concentrate TCs remained generally stable this week. Some mine enterprises indicated that lead concentrate TCs had almost no room for further decline, while imported ore prices were still mainly quoted at -$150 to -$130/dmt. Affected by the recent tight supply-demand conditions of zinc concentrates and copper concentrates, some suppliers of lead concentrates rich in zinc and copper adjusted the pricing methods for copper and zinc. Although the comprehensive value of such copper- and zinc-rich lead concentrates was raised, the pricing of lead and precious metals within them remained unchanged, and the silver payable indicators for lead concentrates with various silver contents in the market remained firm.

On April 29, Tibet Huayu Mining released its Q1 2026 production and operation data announcement. The report showed that in Q1 2026, zinc concentrates production totaled 2,070 mt in metal content, lead-antimony concentrates with silver content reached 1,489 mt in metal content, and gold concentrates reached 323.6 kg.

[Zinc Concentrates Tender] According to SMM, the tender results from a mine in north China were released last week, with the self pick-up tender price at around 2,200 yuan/mt in metal content (including a 20/80 profit-sharing arrangement), where by-product metals were not priced separately. SMM will continue to monitor subsequent changes in TCs.