Indium may be one of the mining industry's lesser known metals - one too obscure for many casual observers of commodity prices to follow. But recent developments have begun to change that. Indium's price has been strong in recent years, reaching highs of over $1,000 per kilogram in 2006. In today’s market, the metal continues to trade in the $400 per kilogram range, nearly double its average 2003 price. With important emerging sources of demand and uncertainty about new sources of supply, it seems there just isn't enough indium to go around.

 

Indium is a critical ingredient in a number of high-growth technologies. You may not recognize it, but you may be looking at it right now: indium is part of the thin-film coating for LCD screens used in high-demand consumer goods like flat panel computer monitors, TVs and cell phones. It is also a key component in new generation thin-film solar cells - part of the fast-growing global alternative energy market, projected to quadruple to more than US$226 billion a year by 2016.¹ Then there are indium's additional uses: in solders, semi-conductors, infrared devices and other applications.

 

Chemically similar to aluminum, indium is soft, malleable and easily fusible, qualities that account for its excellent performance as a coating. And when combined with other substances to form materials like indium nitride, it is an extremely efficient full-spectrum collector of solar energy. Indium occurs in nature alongside base metals such as tin, copper, lead and zinc, and is recovered as a byproduct of the smelting process. It is also a rare element, ranked 61st in abundance in the earth's crust.

 

It is this rarity, especially in economic concentrations coupled with growing demand, which accounts for indium's recent price strength. Companies that can supply indium to help satisfy global needs are strongly positioned for success.

 

Adex’s Mount Pleasant Mine property has been called the world's largest reserve of indium by Natural Resources Canada.² In 2008, Adex completed a successful drilling program of more than 13,300 metres on both tungsten-molybdenum and tin-indium areas of the property. The National Instrument 43-101-compliant mineral resource estimate for the North Zone contains 10,882,000 tonnes at grades of 0.43% tin, 67.8 grams per tonne (g/t) indium and 0.67% zinc, plus 7,603,000 tonnes in the inferred category grading 0.22% tin, 74.6 g/t indium and 0.99% zinc.

 

Adex is currently developing a plan for a staged approach to the development of the North Zone, including a scoping study on the economic returns of running a commercial production facility at the North Zone. Once the development stage is complete, a production decision will be made, equipment ordered and the construction of the facility commenced. The objective of this development plan is the production of tin, indium, zinc and other products under a lower capex, lower cost scenario, compared to proceeding with full-scale production.

 

Adex officials say they are excited about the future of the Mount Pleasant property - small wonder, given the strong demand for and rapid price appreciation of indium, this once-obscure metal, now recognized as an essential component of flat screen and solar energy technologies.

 

1. Clean Edge: The Clean-tech Market Authority. "Clean-Energy Trends 2007 Report." March, 2007.

2. Wright, Phillip. "Mineral and Metal commodity Review: Tin." Natural Resources Canada, 1996.