Electric Royalties Ltd (TSX-V:ELEC, OTC:ELECF) told investors that Nyrstar, the operator of the Middle Tennessee Mine (MTM) in Tennessee, on which it holds a zinc royalty, has temporarily paused operations at the mine.
Nyrstar, the operating subsidiary of Trafigura, told Electric Royalties that it made the move in response to weakened market conditions and inflationary impacts on input costs and operating margins, saying operations will resume as soon as economically viable, the company said in a statement.
In the meantime, it said Nyrstar plans to conduct exploration drilling to define additional zinc, germanium, and gallium resources to position it to increase the supply to its Clarksville smelter upon completion of a planned investment to enable on-site recovery of germanium and gallium.
Once operations resume, Nyrstar plans for MTM to supply diversified critical minerals to the US market.
Electric Royalties noted that the MTM zinc royalty is held in a limited partnership in which it owns a 25% economic interest with the remaining 75% interest held by Sprott Streaming and Royalties Corp.
Electric Royalties is a royalty company established to take advantage of the demand for a wide range of commodities (lithium, vanadium, manganese, tin, graphite, cobalt, nickel, zinc and copper) that will benefit from the drive toward electrification of a variety of consumer products: cars, rechargeable batteries, large scale energy storage, renewable energy generation and other applications.
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