Hi bigzim. Yes I do remember Mike talking about a Ni Price >US$8/lb as being the price point to incentive miners to bring new Ni mines into production. If there are no substantial Co credits to reduce C1 and increase EBITDA then Mike is correct. However it is a different story if there are substantial Co credits because of the recent Co price increases. I have been looking through my list of ASX Ni companies with SS/PFS/DFS but no operating mine. There are a surprising number of them and a high proportion have Co credits. Now if I update their SS/PFS/DFS with the current Co price their NPV & FCF improve substantially and it many cases the project move into the fundable zone. If Co prices continue to increase further then I suspect we will see a raft of these "shelved" Ni projects brought back onto the feasible list. Obviously if the Ni price starts to improve next year then the Co/Ni combination will re-awaken the ASX Ni sector and open up a number of very attractive opportunities.
So if Mike is right in his forecasts then next year is the start of very exciting times for Ni/Co miners.
COB Price at posting:
43.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
