Copper concentrate market turnaround focus of study

The dramatic turnaround in the copper concentrate market is partly the result of large shipments in 1992 to the former Soviet Union and increased buying by China.

So says Brook Hunt & Associates of the United Kingdom in its study Global Copper Concentrate and Blister-anode Markets to 2005.

Only a few years ago, the market was subject to concerns about a shortage of smelter capacity to treat available concentrates.

Western concentrate toll deals in the Commonwealth of Independent States are now few and far between. However, earlier, such contracts caused surplus concentrate inventories in the West to be reduced far more rapidly than expected.

Current difficult market conditions will hasten the adjustment process required to redress fundamental structural imbalances between mine, smelter and refinery capacities identified in the study, says Brook Hunt. The implied lack of concentrates to keep the smelting industry operating at optimum economic rates in the future is a result of smelter capacity growing at a faster rate than concentrate output.

Few new smelters are likely to be constructed, but incremental expansions and better utilization of existing plants will add about a million tonnes to production by the end of 1996.

Although the amount of copper mined during the next three years will be increased by more than 1.3 million tonnes (contained copper), 45% of this increase will derive from solvent extraction-electrowinning, which bypasses conventional smelting and refining to produce refined metal. The rise in copper-in-concentrate output is projected to be less than the anticipated increase in smelter capacity during the same period. For more information, write Brook Hunt & Associates Ltd., Woburn House, 45 High St., Addlestone, Surrey KT15 1TU, U.K.