Metals desk · Base and refined
Refined metal, concentrate to cathode.
Copper, aluminium, zinc, lead and nickel in both concentrate and refined form, moved between smelters, fabricators and exchange warehouses.
- Exchanges
- LME · COMEX · SHFE
- Warehouse points
- 9
Overview
The metals book
The metals desk runs two books that behave differently. Refined metal is close to a financial instrument — registered brands, exchange warrants, warehouse delivery — while concentrates are priced on contained metal net of treatment and refining charges, and the margin sits in the deductions, not the headline price.
Concentrate value is contained metal times the payable percentage, less TC/RCs, less penalties for deleterious elements. A cargo carrying arsenic above the smelter's threshold is a different commercial proposition from a clean one at the same grade, and we price it that way.
Flat price is hedged on exchange from the moment title passes, against the quotational period written into the contract. What we carry is the treatment charge, the penalty schedule and the assay — not the direction of the copper price.
Warehousing is arranged at LME-approved facilities, with warrant handling, rent and free-on-truck charges managed in-house.
Products
What we trade, and to what specification.
| Product | Specification | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Copper cathode | Grade A, LME registered brand | Delivered to fabricators and exchange warehouses |
| Copper concentrate | 22 – 28% Cu | Placed with smelters on TC/RC terms |
| Aluminium ingot | P1020A, 99.7% minimum | Term supply into extrusion and rolling |
| Zinc and lead | SHG zinc 99.995%, lead 99.97% | Refined metal and concentrate |
| Nickel | Class I briquette and cathode | Into stainless and battery supply chains |
Commercial terms
How a cargo is priced and settled.
The headline price is rarely the price. These are the terms that decide what a cargo is actually worth by the time it is discharged and invoiced.
- 01Payable metal
- Concentrate is bought on contained metal at an agreed payable percentage — typically around 96.5% for copper, subject to a minimum unit deduction — with precious metal credits payable above threshold grades.
- 02Treatment and refining charges
- A treatment charge per dry metric tonne of concentrate and a refining charge per pound of payable metal are deducted from the metal value. We trade both against the annual benchmark and on the spot market, where the two diverge through the cycle.
- 03Penalty elements
- Arsenic, antimony, bismuth, lead, zinc, fluorine and mercury carry a charge per unit or part unit above the contractual threshold. The penalty schedule is negotiated with the receiving smelter and priced into the offer.
- 04Quotational period
- The contract fixes which exchange average applies — month of arrival, a stated forward month, or a buyer's or seller's election within a window. The hedge is placed to match, so basis is a decision rather than an accident.
- 05Assay exchange and umpire
- Buyer's and seller's laboratories exchange results. Where they differ by more than the splitting limit, an umpire laboratory from an agreed panel settles the figure and bears the cost by proximity.
- 06Provisional and final settlement
- A provisional invoice is issued against the bill of lading on provisional weights and assays, with the balance settled once final weights, final analysis and the quotational period average are known.
Trade routes
Origin to destination.
Origin
Chile and Peru
Destination
China, Japan, Korea
Concentrate in containers and breakbulk
Origin
Gulf smelters
Destination
Southeast Asia, Europe
Refined aluminium on term offtake
Origin
Southern Africa
Destination
Europe, India
Refined copper and cobalt-bearing material
Execution
How the cargo actually moves.
- LME-approved warehousing and warrant handling
- Exchange hedging against agreed quotational periods
- Container and breakbulk consolidation for concentrates
- Assay exchange and umpire procedure on concentrate lots