Gold is back to just above $US1550/oz. Nickel is at a four-month low, aluminium is at its lowest for seven months and copper for eight months.

No wonder Roger Bade at London-based Whitman Howard began his latest quarterly commodity review with the words: “The global mining sector looks very sick, with major producers delivering very disappointing financial results as they disentangle themselves from past expansionary mistakes”

We’ll come back to this gloomster shortly. Also overnight came some very telling figures showing that – at a time when investors are nervous about the global economy, Cyprus et al – prices have faced the double-whammy of falling demand in many markets at a time when metal output is increasing.

Thanks to some fast work at another London firm, Capital Economics, we can see how just in the March quarter, production of copper rose significantly. Compared with the three months to December 31, Anglo American upped its copper output by about 10%.

Then, between the 5% and 10% mark, we have rises from Antofagasta, BHP Billiton, Codelco, Freeport and Xstrata. Then we see that Vale pushed out nearly 20% more copper than it had in the December quarter, but the surprise was Rio Tinto, with output being up by more than 20%.

Capital says copper imports by China in the March quarter were at their lowest level since July 2011. And for the fourth consecutive month, exchange stocks increased in March for five of the six major metals (lead being the exception); copper and nickel inventories in warehouses rose by more than 60% year-on-year.

These have now more than doubled since early December due mainly to a surge in deliveries at Antwerp and more recently at Johor. Copper inventories monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange have risen to record levels. Total exchange stocks of the red metal have now hit their highest level since May 2003.

At first glance, aluminium seems to be showing a more cheerful picture. Taking year-on-year output to March 31, we can see there were big falls in production from South America, Europe and Oceania. Overall, global production rose because China’s output soared, especially from new smelters in the west of that country.

Roger Bade paints a broad brush picture, equally as gloomy: “The market will not tolerate excessive risk, lack of visibility, political/Russian oligarch uncertainty, difficult geography/licensing regimes, nor exploration, development or financing risk, as highlighted by terrible share price performances seen almost completely across the board.”

You could argue that some prices are still reasonable: gold around $US1600/oz, copper well above $US7300/tonne, and iron ore around $US140/tonne. But Bade says it is hard to see any upside, anywhere.

Looking at the overall picture, where a return to the doldrums cannot be ruled out, Bade notes crisply that “this is still not a favourable backdrop for investors, particularly when well-paid mining executives are asking them to expect lower returns or keep quiet”

But even outside the major metals, there are problems. The rare earths sector is dead, notwithstanding China’s production halts and lower exports. As Whitman Howard sees it, there’s not much enthusiasm for cobalt and molybdenum (although Bade concedes there is a strong argument for higher tin prices over the medium term as one of the world’s biggest mines - in Peru - comes to the end of its life).

He sees the potash market well-supplied for a number of years. All the major producers are sitting on excess capacity, so even if North American and Brazilian demand lifts over the coming months, there is plenty of excess capacity with existing potash producers.

Whitman Howard is more upbeat on phosphate. The main exporter, Morocco, is diverting production to build a domestic fertiliser industry, while trouble in any one of a number of North Africa-Middle East producers (Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Syria) could see disrupted phosphate availability.

Thermal coal prices are weakening with the end of strikes in Colombia. Much bleaker for coal, though, is the shale gas revolution and its potential to be adopted more widely for power generation.

Uranium remains weak, as do prices for ferro-vanadium and niobium. Zircon prices are also showing signs of weakness, although those could be helped by production cutbacks. Magnesium has returned to earth with a bump, while rhenium, antimony and tellurium have been weak - although mercury, indium and tungsten prices have held up well.

There are a few other bright spots - diamonds, for example. Tantalum is holding, too.

But the bright spots are not enough to pierce the overall market gloom.

For the miners, optimism may be in short supply for a while.

But cheer up: it could be worse – you could be a US farmer watching corn prices go into freefall.