[SMM afternoon Review] Zinc in Ningbo: zinc prices go up and down and rigid demand is mainly purchased downstream.

Blue Moon Metals announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of the Turner copper-gold VMS deposit in Oregon from Gold Coast Mining. Consideration comprises US$4.7 million in cash, 4,778,761 Blue Moon shares valued at about US$27 million based on the 20-day VWAP, and up to US$7 million in milestones tied to underground exploration/development permitting, mining permits and commercial production. Closing is expected in November 2026, subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval and customary conditions. Turner is a past-producing Cyprus-type VMS deposit containing copper, gold, zinc, silver and cobalt. Its 2010 historical estimate reported 2.447 million short tons of Indicated material grading 2.65% zinc and 2.084 million short tons of Inferred material grading 2.78% zinc. The company expects permitting for exploration drilling and underground development to take 12–18 months.

[Poor end-use demand performance, zinc oxide operating rate edges down] From the perspective of end-use demand performance, in the rubber-grade zinc oxide sector, tire enterprise orders are generally weak, and purchases of zinc oxide remain just-in-time; orders in the desulfurization field perform poorly, with demand remaining sluggish...

[Operating rate of die-casting zinc alloy declines, expected to fall further next week] The operating rate moved lower this week, mainly because some enterprises scheduled maintenance during the week, dragging down the overall operating level. In addition, some small and medium-sized enterprises have recently been affected by high prices, with weaker order performance, and there have been cases of proactive production control, which also weighed on the operating rate.