Bunker Hill Mining Corp has shipped the first concentrate from its Bunker Hill zinc-lead-silver mine in Idaho to Teck Resources’ integrated Trail lead-zinc smelter in British Columbia. The company’s new 1,800 t/d processing plant has completed commissioning and begun producing concentrate, marking the mine’s first concentrate-sale revenue in more than 45 years. Bunker Hill is continuing to optimise plant performance during commissioning and is targeting full commercial production by year-end. Concentrate is analysed by Silver Valley Analytical before being trucked about 220 km to Trail for processing under Bunker Hill’s offtake arrangements. The restart introduces a new source of zinc-lead concentrate supply, while ramp-up performance remains the key item to monitor.

[SMM Silver Express] SMM July 31: SMM 1# silver ingot production stood at 1,556 tonnes in July 2026, down 0.38% month-on-month and 3.59% year-on-year, with cumulative growth of 5.3% in the first seven months. Producer inventories rose 22.2% month-on-month. The decline was mainly due to ongoing maintenance at copper, lead and zinc smelters, with some inventories reserved for processing trade exports.

[Frequent disruptions in China’s supply side; TCs fell in many regions of China in August]: On a weekly basis, the SMM Zn50 domestic weekly average TC fell 400 yuan/mt Zn WoW to -1,150 yuan/mt Zn, and the SMM Imported Zinc Concentrate Index fell $3.5/dmt WoW to -$98.13/dmt. On a monthly basis, the SMM Imported Zinc Concentrate Index fell $17.01/dmt MoM in July to -$89.81/dmt....

According to SMM, a zinc smelter in Central China plans to carry out routine maintenance in August, which is expected to last around half a month, affecting output by 1,000-1,500 mt.

According to China Customs data, China imported 2.7616 million tonnes (gross weight) of zinc concentrate during January–June 2026, up 8.98% year on year, with overall imports posting modest growth compared with the same period last year.

According to the latest China Customs data, China imported 362.8 kt (gross weight) of zinc concentrate in June 2026, down 8.51% MoM (or 51.1 kt) but up 9.97% YoY. Cumulative imports for January–June 2026 reached 2.7616 million tonnes (gross weight), representing a 8.98% increase from the same period last year.