We have long found it hard to reconcile official Chinese data for mine and refined zinc production. Even after allowing for concentrate imports and likely oxide and secondary feeds, reported mine output is simply too small to have met smelters' residual needs. Because refined production data correspond quite well with the known output of China's largest plants, our preferred series for metal supply differs little from government statistics. But this means that we have to make some often large adjustments to official series for mine supply. Because it is likely that these miss many operations in the informal sector, we boost our totals for those provinces where such mining is known to be important.
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