SHANGHAI, Jun. 1 (SMM) - Many lead-zinc mines and smelters in Huayuan County, Hunan Province restarted production recently after environmental protection inspections, SMM reported.

With approval by the Party Central Committee and the State Council, seven central environmental protection teams of the third round of environmental protection inspections in China entered Tianjin, Shanxi, Liaoning, Anhui, Fujian, Hunan and Guizhou during April 24-28, 2017. Such inspections by the seven teams had been completed as of May 28.

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Huayuan’s government has been dealing with goaf from July 2016. Unqualified mines were required to suspend production. Local mines closed across the board from April after entry of central environmental protection teams. This also affected zinc smelters and forced them to cease production in mid-to-late April.

Some 10,000 tonnes of zinc ingot output was affected during April-May, SMM understands.

After the third round of environmental protection inspections, some mines that have passed such inspections plan to resume operation during late May-early June. Smelters also returned to production recently.

Some zinc ingot will flow to the market in mid-June, SMM predicts. Production at zinc smelters will recover to 70-80%.

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