“Sulfuric acid is dissolving mining profits,” Prices have continued to soar. The mining industry is feeling the pinch. “Sulfuric acid is critical in mining nickel, copper and uranium. It’s also used in the fertilizer business and in making ethanol. We also use it in refining oil and in treating wastewater. In fact, it’s used in a whole bunch of things.
“And it doesn’t look like prices will slow down any time soon. ‘After a period when you could hardly give it away,’ writes The Wall Street Journal, ‘sulfuric acid has gotten exceedingly scarce, rising some 1,000% in the past year. Some nickel mines consume $10,000 of acid just to extract a ton of nickel, now selling for about $20,000, down from $50,000 last year.’ “It’s an amazing turn of events for the mining industry,” says Mayer. “Metal prices were high, and companies were making good money. Costs are now catching up to and passing suddenly plunging metal prices. Oil is up nearly 60% since a year ago, and mining companies burn lots of it. The price of coking coal has tripled, and the mining companies burn lots of that, too. “At the margin, the higher-cost producers of these metals are losing money. Seems relief must be on the way soon, in the form of higher prices for base metals, for the simple reason that parts of the industry are not going to supply the stuff at current prices. They won’t have a choice -- they’ll go bankrupt if they don’t.”
“And it doesn’t look like prices will slow down any time soon. ‘After a period when you could hardly give it away,’ writes The Wall Street Journal, ‘sulfuric acid has gotten exceedingly scarce, rising some 1,000% in the past year. Some nickel mines consume $10,000 of acid just to extract a ton of nickel, now selling for about $20,000, down from $50,000 last year.’ “It’s an amazing turn of events for the mining industry,” says Mayer. “Metal prices were high, and companies were making good money. Costs are now catching up to and passing suddenly plunging metal prices. Oil is up nearly 60% since a year ago, and mining companies burn lots of it. The price of coking coal has tripled, and the mining companies burn lots of that, too. “At the margin, the higher-cost producers of these metals are losing money. Seems relief must be on the way soon, in the form of higher prices for base metals, for the simple reason that parts of the industry are not going to supply the stuff at current prices. They won’t have a choice -- they’ll go bankrupt if they don’t.”
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im here because of few cents for you. just dropping by.
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