LONDON (Bloomberg) ? Bermuda-based Griffin Mining Ltd., which mines zinc in China, said it may start exporting the metal to take advantage of higher international prices, including on the London Metal Exchange.

?For the past six weeks, Chinese metal prices are being paid at a discount to LME prices,? Roger Goodwin, the Bermuda- based company?s finance director, said in an interview in London. ?The Chinese are struggling to keep up with price rises in London. If it continues, we will start exporting.?

Zinc prices rose to a record on the LME yesterday, surpassing $2,000 a metric ton, on speculation Hunan Zhuye Torch Metals Co., China?s largest producer of the metal, may curb output after a toxic spill into a tributary of the Yangtze River.

Griffin in June said it started producing zinc from its Caijiaying mine in China?s Hebei province. The company sells zinc in the form of concentrate, a powder-like material that is processed by smelters into finished metal.

Zinc is mostly used to protect steel from corrosion.