Chinese Smelter Halts Operations for New Year, Resumes in Late Feb-Early Mar

According to the release from Ivanhoe Mines on February 3, Ivanhoe Mines is engaged in in-depth discussions with Gécamines and Mercuria, planning to supply critical minerals from the ultra-high-grade Kipushi zinc-lead-germanium-gallium mine to the US. Under the proposed agreement, Mercuria's current offtake of Kipushi zinc concentrates will be allocated to the trading division of Gécamines, and the excess production resulting from the successful debottlenecking and expansion of Kipushi in Q4 2025 will also be allocated. The concentrates produced from the Kipushi mine also contain significant amounts of germanium and gallium. Gécamines has the potential to be responsible for the sales of up to 50% of the mine's concentrate production, including sales to the US.

[SMM Lead Morning Brief: Previous Bearish Factors Exhausted, LME Lead Ends Six-Day Losing Streak] SMM, Feb. 5: Overnight, LME lead opened at $1,965/mt. With no significant changes in fundamentals, the tug-of-war between longs and shorts has entered a relatively stagnant phase......

[SMM Lead Morning Meeting Minutes: Weak Supply-Demand Fundamentals Expected to Keep Lead Prices Fluctuating Rangebound in the Short Term] PBOC: Focus on Supporting Key Areas Such as Domestic Demand Expansion, Technological Innovation, and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. As the Chinese New Year holiday approaches, upstream and downstream enterprises in the lead industry chain have begun taking holidays one after another. In particular, holidays at downstream enterprises are directly leading to weaker spot lead transactions...