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 Replies: 11 / Views: 2,082 |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
837 Posts |
I came across this interesting news story on an apparent shortfall in zinc supply & some interesting things were said e.g. the US mint was scrambling as a result of the situation and the situation could last a few years  .... http://finance.yahoo.com/video/zinc...4204754.htmlThe prospect of soaring zinc prices could be interesting with regard to coins  |
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Pillar of the Community
1325 Posts |
Why? the only US coins using Zn currently are the cent and the "golden" dollars, and they already want to get rid of the cent instead of doing something like the Euro, UK, or Canadians and make them copper plated steel.....We won't get chrome plated coins or something? You got what, just the penny and two-pence over there that have zinc? Edited by shadz
09/26/2014 12:49 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
I see your concern. Zinc is close to the most used Metal on Earth. The usage in coinage is trivial compared to the necessity to Galvanize piping. Also, used in the process of Parkerizing which is common in some guns. Zinc is used in Vitamin tablets, throat lozenges and many, many more uses. For the small amount required for our pennies, it is to trivial an amount to worry about. And if they simply stopped making pennies, not to many people would really notice. I think we should worry if somehow the material used to make credit and debit cards became scarce, the world would almost stop. |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
3831 Posts |
History has always shown that if prices go up too high, people will find solutions. Take for instance copper. When copper prices were going over the roof and thefts of copper wires rose, aluminum substituted copper for wires.
A gradual price increase isn't too bad either - a lot of metal prices have been rather depressed for some time in particular iron.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5207 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
 United Kingdom
837 Posts |
Quote:
You got what, just the penny and two-pence over there that have zinc? Yes, older UK bronze pennies and two-pence pieces have zinc but there is a lot of it in pound coins and the outer ring of two-pound coins .... Quote:
Why? Since US pennies (Ooops... I mean cents ! )are still being minted the prospect of higher zinc prices does have bearing and offcourse the metal (scrap) value of all those cents out there at the moment.... |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
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Take for instance copper. When copper prices were going over the roof and thefts of copper wires rose, aluminum substituted copper for wires. How right you are. ComEd and many other Utilities have long ago switched to Lead Covered Copper Ground cables. Looks like Aluminum. And a shortage of Zinc may not be to much of a problem for Galvanizing since more and more organizations have switched to PVC piping. And if we stopped making pennies, no one would notice either. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
3692 Posts |
Zinc is also used in solder to bring down the melting point. :) I hope this doesn't affect my trade. If not, I'll just stockpile some zinc and make my own solder.
Brass contains zinc, so all you reloaders and shooters might be looking at an increase in prices if this happens. Might have to switch to steel cartridges.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Zinc prices really aren't that high. Yes they are up compared to a year ago but over the long term they aren't that far off the average.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
837 Posts |
The news about the situation with those major zinc mines hit early September and the graph you have shown shows the prices upto around just before that news story , the shortfall in supply will probably start to hit the market soon enough and when it does it will be interesting what that graph will look like. Based on the news story this supply shortfall could go on into 2018 so that spot price might go up ......this is an interesting developing situation that is just starting at the moment, I think by this time next year we could see those prices hit past the $1200 mark and stay above that for a while longer than the 2010 high  |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Quote:
The news about the situation with those major zinc mines hit early September and the graph you have shown shows the prices upto around just before that news story , OK that last graph went to about Sept. Here is the graph for the past 60 days. You'll see that in the three weeks before that news story it popped up about 4 cents a pound peaking on the 4th at $1.087 per pound. Since then it has been dropping and the overall trend for the past 60 days has been downward.  If the mines close down we may a pop up, or we may see more sources coming on line. Even if we do see $1.20 per pound I don't see that as a catastrophe. |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
837 Posts |
 it wont be a catastrophe , look at it this way - if other mines dont step in to fill in the gap and the price were to rise to $1.20 per pound or dare I say even further beyond that ....then we have a situation were zinc (of all metals) could be a good bet for someone looking to make money in Futures market  |
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Replies: 11 / Views: 2,082 |
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Posted 09/26/2014 10:33 am
