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Mining firms feel depressed over low mineral prices

VANCOUVER
2016-01-26 15:35

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Prospectors and miners from more than 30 countries are gathering at the Mineral Exploration Roundup in Vancouver on Monday to lick their wounds as sustained low mineral prices take their toll on the industry.

Prices for most minerals are down, and most mining companies feel depressed and face shortage of investment, Carl Schulze, who helps companies prospect for gold and other precious metals, told Xinhua. "It's pretty depressed right now overall. ... We reached the peak in 2011 when investment dollars were very very strong ... following a continual up-peak for about nine years ... and then it started sliding back in 2012 and since then it's slid back considerably," said Schulze, a manager at All-Terrane Mineral Exploration Services in Canada's northwestern area of Yukon.

Glen Wonders, who works for Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia, also said it was a tough time for the miners. "It's tough raising money. It is tough getting investors interested in projects, but there are still very good projects in British Columbia that are advancing as a result of good work and careful stewardship of both the financial side of the company as well as the social side," Wonders added. He said they have yet to see signs of improvement in most mineral markets, but the world still relies on gold, zinc, copper, coal and other minerals that are mined from British Colombia rock. "We're not expecting an immediate or significant lift. We do think that as we advance to the back end of the year you will see improvement in a number of areas just as economic conditions globally settle down and people realize that there is light at the end of the tunnel and there are good opportunities to be had," he told Xinhua.

While mineral prices remain low generally, gold has remained a safe haven for investors and miners. On Monday it was traded at just over 1,100 U.S. dollars per ounce. Extraction remains profitable for gold in British Colombia when the price stays above about 700 U.S. dollars per ounce.

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