Lead

Current Market Climate:

Today, Congress met to discuss further revisions to the proposed 700 billion dollars bailout plan, designed for the buyout of bad debts by the U.S. Treasury. Senator Chris Dodd, (D-Conn.) has been instrumental in putting together the bailout plan and explaining its merits to Congress. According to proponents of the plan, it will assist homeowners, banish lucrative salary packages to company executives, and ensure complete accountability to the public of all the U.S. Treasury’s actions.  

As the two sides, Republican and Democrat, started to agree on provisions to the plan that are agreeable to both parties, the Dow Jones rose dramatically, by more than 300 points. The world markets are all on tenterhooks as they await the final decision by Congress, but today’s rapid gains (Sept. 25, /08) make it clear that the bailout plan is restoring investor confidence, at least for the moment.

If the plan goes forward, the money will be released in portions, with 250 billion US dollars available for immediate use by the Treasury and Congress to implement the buying of bad debts. The current market crisis is linked to the housing “bubble” which burst, leaving a trail of devalued homes and defaulted mortgages in its wake. Some view the current drastic measures being considered by the Treasury and Congress as proof positive of the severity of the situation: market activity seems to bear out this analysis, as the Dow Jones rose so dramatically as soon as hints of a concrete deal were heard. “In the longer term, Wall Street might acknowledge that it doesn’t like all the provisions,” remarked Dave Kinnekamp, CEO of KDV Wealth Management. “But in the shorter run, it should restore confidence to the markets, something that has been sorely lacking of late.”

Zinc And Lead Metal Spot Prices For Sept. 25/08 

Non-LME spot prices for zinc ranged from .8033 to .8124 on Sept. 25/08, a zero percent change for the commodity. Lead spot prices ranged from .9027 to .9095, also with no percentage change.

Lead and Zinc Company News 

An announcement was made by the Shanghai Future Exchange this morning: it outlined an agreement for the registration of two new brands of zinc ingots. The two brands are as follows: “Shuangyan” and “Jiulong”. Both brands are eligible for delivery within three months after registration approval.

The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) has changed the grading of Horsehead (NASDAQ:HHC). Due to worsening performance, the stock is now classed as Sector Perform rather than the previous grading of Outperform. Horsehead Holding Corporation is a manufacturer of zinc and zinc products: they own six recycling and production facilities in the United States.  The downgrading of the stock was reported by CIBC on Wednesday, Sept. 24/08.

Excellon will start to build a new lead zinc mill in Platosa, Mexico, despite the current market climate: there were concerns that the plan would not come to fruition due to the poor demand for lead and zinc, as well as the US stock market crash. Excellon have decided to downscale drilling for base metals in 2009, but they are not abandoning their mill construction project. Excellon (TSX: EXN) stock fell two cents after they reported news of the new mill. Currently, their stock quote on the TSX (Sept. 25/08) is $ .65 cents per share, with a percentage decrease of 7.14.

Zazu Metals Corporation (ZAZ.TO) has reported results from their development project near the Teck Cominco Red Dog zinc mine in Alaska. Their project is the Lik zinc, lead, and silver deposit, and they have intersected 26.8 grading, with 27% lead and zinc at this location. Current stock quotes for Zazu are (as of Sept. 25/08): 0.1950 per share, with a percentage decrease of 2.50 percent.