I will take a stab at that one...
No the world does not need another nickel mine, we probably have enough reserves to last us 20 years or more.
However better questions would be:
Is there a market for nickel?
The answer there is yes, there is a spot price that fluctuates with supply and demand. This spot price has been over $20 a few years ago and as low as $4 just this February. Currently, we are sitting near $9 on an up trend for the last 4 months.
Do we have within our possibilities a nickel deposit that could be mined and produce nickel at a competivite price to yield both a safe play for the mining company operating mine and is there a possibility of big profits?
The answer here is Yes. Are we there yet? The answer is no but we are getting very close and the speculation of us crossing from an uneconomical deposit to an economical deposit is giving us speculators/investors much to look at with the possibilities of great profits. Many of the factors that go into this becoming a mine have been discussed but a quick resume would be:
Tonnage: Getting there
Grade: Very good grade
Type of rock: Sulfides vs Laterite, we have nickel sulfide which is much cheaper to process and hence produces a bigger profit for the operating mining company.
Infrastructure: Always seen as the achille's heal of this company but tonnage will trump this and that is why this company is in play recently as tonnage possibilities have jumped up dramatically.
Once we prove up enough tonnage and we cross that infrastructure hump, we could produce nickel at a fairly cheap price vs spot price. I believe we could produce nickel for $3 per pound or less and that would make someone a pile of profits.
So the world currently does not need another nickel mine but can someone make huge money mining this nickel-you betcha and that is why we are here!!
Glorieux
