Hey JT, I have been a massive fan of zinc for the last 3 years or so, although it has taken a long to get going & the price has finally exploded & I think its quite possible it will again reach the heights we saw back in 2006 I think it was of over $4k/ton. The main reason I have been friendly to it is due to the lack of exploration & mine development in the last 10-15 years. The collapse of Pasminco & Zinafex put paid to that & then there was Western Metals as well. We looked at trying to finance a zinc mine back in 2011 & there was no way the bank credit guys would go near it & when you dug into why, it all came down to there experience with Pasminco & I think many banks are like this in regards zinc related financing. In regards the article you posted, what's the relationship between Chinese rail & zinc? There certainly is one with copper & steel etc but zinc seems a bit tenuous to me. Is it cladding for all the additional buildings etc?
Either way it was only a matter of time before demand started to outstrip constrained supply.

The difficulty is as you saying finding the right exposure. Perilya has the old Pasminco assets. I found them pretty good to deal with but that was a few years ago. Where did the Kagara zinc/lead assets end up? I did a massive zinc/lead & copper hedge back for them back in 2005.

Venturex (VXR) is a multi metal explorer who weren't that far from looking at going into production a few years ago, before prices fell back. They had a reasonable amount of zinc.

Otherwise I'm a bit out of touch to be honest, so it would be good to hear anyone else's thoughts.