[SMM Zinc Morning Comment] Overnight, SHFE zinc recorded a small bullish candlestick, with the five-day moving average below turning into support and the middle Bollinger Band above forming resistance. Boosted by the LME overnight, SHFE zinc's center edged up slightly. Mine-side disruptions persisted, but smelters......

[SMM Morning Meeting Summary: Supply Disruptions Persist, LME Zinc Center Edges Up] Overnight, LME zinc recorded a bullish candlestick with a long upper shadow, with the 60-day moving average below providing support, and the KDJ gap narrowed. The Middle East conflict continued overnight, and shipping delays, compounded by...

SMM News, July 20: To deepen industry exchanges, facilitate information channels, and jointly explore development trends and market dynamics in the lead and zinc industry, on July 20, Geng Zhiyao, Senior Analyst for Copper, Lead and Zinc at SMM Information & Technology Co., Ltd. (SMM), Li Hanyu, Senior Analyst for Zinc, and Dai Junxiu, Senior Business Manager, headed to Mengzi Mining and Metallurgy Co., Ltd. for a visit and discussions, and were warmly received by the company’s leaders. During the meeting, the two sides held in-depth and pragmatic discussions on comprehensive market topics across the lead and zinc industry, focusing on core issues such as the global zinc ore supply-demand pattern, the operational logic of mine TCs, supply-demand fundamentals and price trends of zinc ingots and lead ingots, social inventory changes, and import-export flows. At the same time, they communicated in detail and exchanged views on SMM’s metal pricing methodology, spot pricing models for lead and zinc, industry index applications and platform empowerment, enterprises’ raw material procurement status, production operation pace, and overseas market layout plans, further consolidating industry consensus and breaking down information barriers. This visit effectively narrowed the cooperation gap between SMM and Mengzi Mining and Metallurgy, strengthening the foundation of mutual trust. In the future, the two sides will continue to deepen regular exchanges and cooperation, leveraging their respective resources and professional strengths to precisely meet industry needs, share industry data and research results, support stable corporate operations and high-quality industry development, and achieve mutual benefit, win-win outcomes, and coordinated development. About Mengzi Mining and Metallurgy Co., Ltd. Mengzi Mining and Metallurgy Co., Ltd., founded on June 9, 1996, with registered address at No. 66 Tianma Road, Mengzi City, Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan Province, and a registered capital of 51.11 million yuan, is a private mining and metallurgy enterprise integrating resource exploration, mining, beneficiation, and smelting, with a primary focus on comprehensive resource recovery and utilization. With over 20 years of deep engagement in the industry, the company has achieved cumulative operating revenue of nearly 35 billion yuan and paid taxes totaling 3.5 billion yuan. It is a core pillar enterprise in Mengzi City and a key backbone non-public enterprise in Yunnan Province. The company has a well-established industrial layout and complete business portfolio, comprising one main mine, two auxiliary mines, three beneficiation plants, and one smelting branch, along with a wholly owned subsidiary for technology development and multiple wholly owned subsidiaries in trade and supply chain. It has an independent geological exploration team and holds mining rights covering nearly several hundred square kilometers across Honghe, Wenshan, and Lincang prefectures in Yunnan. The main mine, Bainiushan Silver Polymetallic Mine, has proven abundant resources, laying a solid foundation for development. The company’s main products include lead ingots, zinc ingots, antimony ingots, silver ingots, and sulphuric acid, with comprehensive recovery of various valuable metals such as tin, copper, antimony, bismuth, cadmium, iron, sulphur, and gold. The company's operations mainly span the upstream and midstream segments of the lead-zinc industry, with an industry chain encompassing mining, mineral processing, smelting, and trading. It has a sound trade management system and a professional trading team, implementing a major client sales strategy primarily covering procurement and sales. Most of its collaborative suppliers are large state-owned enterprises, publicly listed firms, and industry leaders. Mengzi Mining and Metallurgy Co., Ltd. has six subsidiaries, including three wholly owned subsidiaries and one joint-stock subsidiary, which are mainly engaged in trading and technology businesses. Leveraging its solid industrial strength and robust technological innovation capabilities, the company has garnered numerous prestigious accolades. In 2025, it ranked 41st on the "Yunnan Top 100 Non-Public Enterprises" list, 62nd on the "Yunnan Top 100 Enterprises" list, and 26th on the "Yunnan Top 100 High-Tech Enterprises" list. In 2024, it was awarded the Second Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award jointly by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council. It is a renowned local enterprise, a pillar enterprise in Mengzi City, a Yunnan Provincial Green Factory, a National High-Tech Enterprise, and its overall efficiency ranks among the top 5 in the industry. Within Yunnan's lead-zinc smelting sector, the company's actual lead and zinc metal capacity is second only to Yunnan Chihong Zn & Ge Co., Ltd. 1. Lead and Zinc Smelting (1) Zinc Smelting The smelter was completed and put into operation at the end of 2006, with a design scale of 49,000 mt of zinc ingot and 50 mt of indium ingot per year, and comprehensive recovery of valuable metals such as sulphuric acid, silver, copper, and cadmium. Currently, the main products and production capacities of the company's zinc smelting segment are: Main products: 80,000 mt of zinc ingot, 135,000 mt of 98% sulphuric acid (with an actual capacity of up to 170,000 mt), and 80 mt of indium ingot. By-products: 900 mt of copper sulphate, 400 mt of cadmium ingot, 4,000 mt of lead metal from lead-rich wet-process sludge (of which 3,000 mt is self-produced, and 1,000 mt comes from low-grade zinc oxide from the comprehensive plant), and 10 mt of silver metal from silver-rich wet-process sludge. (2) Lead Smelting The company's lead smelting segment, which enables comprehensive recovery of valuable metals such as silver, antimony, and copper, began construction in 2012 and was completed and commissioned in March 2014. The equipment is currently in good condition, and all permits related to safety, environmental protection, occupational health, and fire safety are valid and meet all relevant national requirements. The production capacity for the main products of the company's lead smelting segment is: 60,000 mt of lead ingot, 100 mt of silver ingot, 3,500 mt of antimony ingot, 60,000 mt of sulphuric acid, 1,000 mt of lead matte (copper metal), and 5,000 mt of zinc oxide metal. 2. Lead-Zinc Ore Mining and Processing The Mengzi Mining and Metallurgy mine is located at Bainiuchang Village Committee, Laozhai Township, Mengzi City, Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan Province (referred to as the Bainiuchang Mine). The mining area extends from Niuzuodi River in the north to Yutang Village in the south, and from Miwei Village in the west to Awei Village in the east, covering a mining and exploration rights area of 30 km². The mine is 60 km from downtown Mengzi and 9 km from the Mengzi–Wenshan third-class highway, ensuring convenient transportation. Roads within the mining area connect to the beneficiation plant, villages, and various adits, facilitating smooth access. Since the development of the Bainiuchang mine, essential industrial sites and auxiliary facilities have been gradually established to meet production and daily living needs. These include the mine headquarters, surface facilities and living quarters for Work Areas 1, 2, 3, and 4, the Baiyang No. 8 waste dump, No. 1 and No. 4 waste dumps, and surface material and equipment warehouses. An internal and external road transport system has been developed, providing direct access to all adits. The mining area comprises five ore blocks—Baiyang, Duimenshan, Chuanxindong, Awei, and Miwei—stretching approximately 5 km east–west and 5 km north–south. To date, the company holds three mining rights certificates and four exploration rights certificates for the mine. The Bainiuchang mine (the following are separate ore blocks within the same mining property) 3. Hazardous Waste Processing The enterprise has obtained a hazardous waste operating permit, with an annual treatment capacity of 98,000 mt. It can reprocess slag generated from its own smelting operations. Yunnan Province currently has a total of 69 Comprehensive Operation Permits under the Yunnan Province Hazardous Waste Operation Permit system, of which approximately 15 cover lead- and zinc-related hazardous waste. The company is the largest processor of hazardous waste materials for publicly listed state-owned enterprises such as Yunnan Copper Zinc, Yunnan Chihong Zn & Ge Co., Ltd., and Luoping Zinc & Electricity. 4. Sales and Trading The company operates a well-established trade management system supported by a professional trading team, implementing a key account sales strategy. It primarily handles procurement and sales, with most of its supplier partnerships formed with large state-owned enterprises, publicly listed firms, and industry leaders. Among its downstream clients, Xiamen Xiangyu Logistics Group Co., Ltd. is a state-owned enterprise, a Fortune Global 500 publicly listed firm, and one of China’s largest lead ingot traders. It mainly purchases zinc ingots from the mining and smelting company, with ingot trading accounting for over 70% of its total purchase and sales volume. Honghe Prefecture Hongtou Industrial Co., Ltd. is a state-controlled enterprise under Honghe Prefecture Development and Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd. It is a diversified company engaged in domestic and international trade in goods and technologies, materials supply and distribution, project investment and construction management, and new energy development and construction. It is a strategic trade partner introduced by the company. SMM Contact: Geng Zhiyao Tel: 13818541149

According to a report by Globe and Mail, cited by Mining.com, the Canadian government would invest hundreds of millions of dollars to support Teck Resources in building its Trail metal facility in British Columbia to expand germanium production and strengthen the North American critical minerals supply chain. The report, citing people familiar with the matter, said the funding would come from Natural Resources Canada, the Canada Growth Fund, and Export Development Canada (EDC). According to information released by Natural Resources Canada on July 3, Minister Tim Hodgson will deliver an important speech on critical minerals. A spokesperson for the department did not respond to a request for comment. Largest Producer Vancouver-based Teck is the largest germanium producer in North America, recovering this mineral from zinc ores in Alaska. The company is the only enterprise in Canada supplying germanium oxide to the US. Germanium is essential for national defense equipment, semiconductors, and chip manufacturing. Domestic production and processing capacity in the US is limited, making it necessary to secure new sources of supply. In May, Titan Mining said it was evaluating the possibility of collaborating with Teck to recover germanium from US zinc mines. Under a company agreement signed on May 14, Titan and Teck plan to recover 13 mt of germanium per year from Titan's Empire State zinc mine in New York State. Titan CEO Rita Adiani disclosed on Tuesday that the current germanium price in the US is $6,000/kg. Specialty Metals Germanium is a specialty metal produced at Teck’s Trail complex, alongside primary products lead and zinc, as well as indium and antimony. The facility is the world’s largest integrated lead and zinc smelter. With little to no germanium production domestically, securing its supply has become a critical issue for the US and other Western countries.

[2026 Lead Concentrate Production, Imports, and TCs: A Comprehensive Review and H2 Market Outlook]In H1 2026, intensified geopolitical games and rising trade policy uncertainties posed multiple challenges to the lead-zinc industry chain, including structural adjustments in ore supply, persistently declining TCs, and smelting costs under pressure. Lead concentrates remained in deficit, and the profit center shifted to by-products on the smelting side.

Lead concentrate TCs were lowered by 50 yuan/mt Pb overall this week. The average weekly TC for domestic Pb50 was reduced to 200 yuan/mt Pb, while some silver-lead ores rich in copper and zinc were still quoted with high TCs above -2,000 yuan/mt Pb due to reasons such as non-pricing or low pricing of contained metals. Overall, lead concentrates remained in tight supply. Due to low arrivals of imported ore, the average weekly TC for imported Pb60 was reduced to -145 $/dmt, and the mainstream quotation range for smelters was lowered to -160 to -130 $/dmt. A few smelters accepted quotations above -200 $/dmt for imported silver-lead ores with good richness due to by-product revenue needs and other reasons. Some smelters have not yet finalized their prices for this month. In terms of negotiations and expectations, lead concentrates exhibited a polarization trend: smelters paid less attention to low-richness ores, but were still willing to accept high-metal-richness silver-lead ores. Additionally, the decline in imported zinc ore, to some extent, fueled the tight supply sentiment for lead ore, making lead concentrate TCs more likely to fall than rise. Meanwhile, the silver coefficient in lead concentrates remained unchanged, mainly because silver prices stayed range-bound and the coefficient had already risen to a relatively high level, thus remaining largely stable overall.

In 2026, global competition for critical minerals has entered a white-hot stage, geopolitical maneuvering continues to deepen, and global industry chains and supply chains are being restructured at an accelerated pace. A new round of technological revolution centered on AI semiconductors, new energy, high-end manufacturing, and aerospace is propelling the minor metal industry into a period of historic development opportunities and profound transformation. Globally, the EU's Critical Raw Materials Act and the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) continue to be implemented, the Minerals Security Partnership keeps expanding, and the trend toward localization and regionalization of critical mineral supply chains intensifies. The competition over resources, technical barriers, and trade rule restructuring for strategic minor metals such as antimony, indium, gallium, germanium, bismuth, selenium, tellurium, and rhenium has become the core focus of global high-end manufacturing competition. As the world's core supplier of minor metals, China holds a dominant position in the smelting and supply of many minor metal varieties. Against this backdrop, the 2026 SMM (14th) Minor Metals Industry Conference gathers upstream and downstream enterprises across the entire industry chain for antimony, indium, gallium, germanium, bismuth, selenium, tellurium, rhenium, etc., as well as scientific research institutes, government agencies, financial and investment institutions, and trade service providers, to build a high-standard, full-chain, deep-level exchange and cooperation platform. The conference will deeply interpret global policy shifts, assess the supply-demand pattern and price trends, dissect growth opportunities in end-use applications, and connect government-enterprise resources and cross-border cooperation opportunities, helping enterprises accurately grasp industry trends, overcome development bottlenecks, optimize supply chain layouts, seize market opportunities, and jointly promote the high-quality sustainable development of China's minor metal industry. Guangxi Yusheng Germanium High-tech Co., Ltd. will make a grand appearance at the conference. Keeping pace with the times, we will set our sights on the goals, forge ahead with determination, and press forward courageously! Click to sign up now. We look forward to meeting you at the conference. Guangxi Yusheng Germanium High-tech Co., Ltd. is a key introduced enterprise in Hechi City specializing in the smelting and deep processing of rare and dispersed metals. It is deeply engaged in the germanium industry, with its germanium capacity consistently ranking among the top in China. It is a key enterprise in China's germanium industry, dedicated to the green development, deep processing, and technological innovation of germanium, contributing to the high-quality development of China's indium, germanium, and gallium industries. I. Core Strengths and Honors in the Germanium Industry The company was founded in July 2016, and achieved an output value of RMB 2.4 billion in 2025. It has been listed among the Top 100 Manufacturing Enterprises in Guangxi for two consecutive years in 2024 and 2025. In the germanium industry, the company boasts strong technical capabilities; its key germanium purification technology won the second prize of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Science and Technology Award. It has led the establishment of a major pilot platform for the efficient separation and extraction of germanium, indium, lead, and silver metals, supported by the regional Science and Technology Department, continuously driving breakthroughs in germanium industry technology. The company has been recognized as a high-tech enterprise and a specialized and sophisticated enterprise, and has passed multiple certifications such as Green Factory, practicing the green development concept of the germanium industry. II. Germanium Resource Security and Industrial Layout The company boasts outstanding resource security advantages, owning 10 proprietary mines and 3 beneficiation plants. It has established non-ferrous metal resource production sites in Guizhou, Guangxi, Xinjiang, and other regions, relying on its own high-quality germanium-rich zinc ore resources to provide stable raw material support for germanium production. Currently, the company has 17 subsidiaries (including holding companies) and branches in multiple core cities, moving towards collectivization and internationalization, and building a complete layout covering germanium resource development, production and processing, and market expansion. III. Germanium Industry System and Core Capacity The company has built an integrated germanium industry system featuring "green mining and beneficiation – circular smelting – deep processing". It has invested over RMB 1.2 billion to construct intelligent production lines, adopting globally leading processes to treat high-germanium zinc concentrates, significantly improving germanium recovery rates and achieving green production. With a core focus on the deep processing of high-purity germanium, it can produce high-purity germanium products with a purity of 7N (99.99999%), widely used in high-end fields such as infrared optics and fiber-optic communications. The Phase I high-purity germanium project with an annual capacity of 50 mt has been successfully put into production, with its capacity ranking among the top in China. IV. Future Plans for the Germanium Industry Looking ahead, the company will continue to deeply cultivate the germanium industry. Once all projects reach full production, it will build a high-purity germanium production line with capacity ranking among the top in China, filling the gap in Guangxi's critical metal germanium industry, further improving the domestic germanium industry chain layout, enhancing the competitiveness of China's germanium industry in the global rare metal sector, contributing to national strategic material security, and working with industry peers to promote the coordinated development of the indium, germanium, and gallium industries.

Lead concentrate TCs were flat overall this week. The weekly average TCs for domestic Pb50 concentrates held steady at 250 yuan/mt Pb. Some silver-lead ores rich in copper and zinc still quoted TCs far below market transaction prices because the contained metals were either not valued or priced at low levels. Overall, the lead concentrate market remained tight, with limited traded volumes of imported ore. The weekly average TCs for imported Pb60 concentrates stood at -$135/dmt. Smelters maintained mainstream quotations in the range of -$150 to -$130/dmt, while some individual smelters, due to by-product revenue needs and other factors, were still willing to accept quotations of -$180 to -$200/dmt for high-grade imported silver-lead ore. This week was in the period of price negotiations for next month's deliveries. Smelters remained willing to accept silver-lead ore with high payable metal content. Coupled with the reduction in imported zinc ore, which to some extent fueled tightness sentiment in lead ore, it is expected that lead ore TCs still have some downside room ahead. As the silver payable coefficient in lead concentrates has risen to a relatively high level, and silver prices continued to trade in a range, the payable coefficient for silver remained unchanged for now.

[Insight into Provincial Profit Landscape: New Release of Zinc Smelting Profit Model by Province] In May 2026, the zinc market is experiencing unprecedented structural pressure. TCs for imported zinc concentrates have fallen to -$56.25/dmt, while domestic TCs dropped weekly to 400 yuan/mt Zn. Meanwhile, the sulphuric acid export control policy continued to take effect in May, with some 98% smelting acid in south China declining by around 300 yuan/mt, directly impacting an important by-product revenue source for smelters. LME zinc inventory of around 100,000 mt stands in sharp contrast to China's social inventory exceeding 260,000 mt. The pattern of "tight ore and loose ingots" has made smelters the most severely squeezed link in the industry chain......

SMM compiled production data from 20 major miners outside China. Based on disclosed production figures, these 20 miners produced a total of 1.282 million mt of zinc ore in Q1 2026, down 54,300 mt YoY (-4.1%) and down 119,500 mt QoQ (-8.5%). Ex-China zinc concentrates production declined significantly in Q1 2026!