which shipped about 2 percent of the world’s mined lead from Australia before it was forced to stop on health concerns, may resume exports of stockpiled material this month as it studies restarting a mine. The company has paid a A$5 million ($4.3 million) performance bond to the state of Western Australia, clearing the way for shipments to start from the port of Fremantle late this month or in early October, Toronto-based Ivernia’s Magellan Metal Pty said today in an e-mailed statement. The company will initially draw down a 21,000 metric ton stockpile of lead concentrate at the company’s Magellan mine site, John Yeates, a Perth-based spokesman for Ivernia, said today by telephone from Perth. The company is also studying a possible restart of the Magellan mine early in 2010 depending on market conditions, he said. The mine has been shut since March 2007 after exports were banned from the port of Esperance after lead dust was blamed for killing birds and infecting residents’ blood. The price of the metal used in batteries slumped 61 percent last year as the worst recession since World War II curbed demand. The price has more than doubled this year as China, the biggest producer, shut smelters on environmental concern. “It’s looking pretty good for a restart early 2010 but we just can’t be definitive,” Yeates said. “The ultimate objective is to get to 150,000 tons of concentrate per annum which is 90,000 to 100,000 tons of lead.”

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