Japan’s Mitsui Mining and Smelting Co plans to produce 123,300 tonnes of zinc in the first half of the year ending in March 2009, up 10.9 percent from a year earlier.
The plan reflects an expected boost from Hachinohe Smelting Co, an affiliated zinc and lead smelter that had been under maintenance over the past year, [...]

European mining stocks rose as gold climbed to a two-month high in Asia and copper prices gained. Anglo American Plc and BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest mining companies, paced the advance.
Alcatel SA led export stocks lower after the dollar dropped against the euro. GlaxoSmithKline Plc paced a decline by drugmakers for a third day.
The Dow [...]

Xstrata Plc, which owns the world’s largest zinc smelter, has lodged a new environmental mining plan for the A$66 million ($49 million) extension of its McArthur River zinc and lead mine in northern Australia.
The plan includes suggestions from the Northern Territory government’s independent adviser Wayne Erskine, a unit of the Zug, Switzerland-based company said in [...]