Energy Crisis, Bottlenecks Blunt Metal Rally Windfall for Miners
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Soaring metal prices should mean surging profits for mining companies, but they are the result of energy shortages and logistics bottlenecks that are also pushing up costs for producers.
The latest leg-up in copper and zinc futures is coming on the heels of a global energy crunch that’s beginning to disrupt the smelters that many miners depend on to process what they pull out of the ground. That’s great for refined metal prices but suggests further hikes in smelting and refining fees already at the highest levels since early in the pandemic.