November 9, 2007 (LPAC) – A collapse of Germany's industrial smelting capacity is causing prices of industrial ores to spike. An article in today's issue of the German Junge Welt daily pointed out that in addition to market speculation which has tripled and doubled the prices of many industrial ores like copper and lead , over the past 1-2 years, the under-supply of smelters is causing severe bottlenecks in the supply of processed metals.

Indeed, experts have warned before, that "investors'" obsession with speculative orgies to make money has been at the expense of sound investments in smelter capacities. The same goes for mining technologies and the maintenance of mines. The "market" has shown interest only in selling and buying, not even caring whether the ores are actually there or not. In that light, the ongoing talks about a super-merger between BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto deserve attention.