Oly,
All good points - I will post now that the sulphide plant will not be in full (and I stress full) production before 2015 based on my rough time line. Permitting on this will be tough - lead with uranium through the ore-body - and will take a long time. How long has a simple task like the stamp duty taken??
Did the NT Government get competent overnight - look what they did with Macarthur River and the power supply and the stamp duty!!
I don't think RIO walked away because lead price was 20c and cobalt was $8 - walked away because the chemistry was too hard.
Metal prices don't make a project - successful production at a cost well below the revenue recieved with an allowance for the capital expenditure make a project. Plenty of big deposits don't succeed - as a perfect example look at Teck and Galore Creek in Canada - a huge deposit that is moth-balled cos they can't make it economic. See cut and paste from their website:
"On November 26, 2007, NovaGold and Teck Cominco issued a joint release announcing the decision to suspend construction activities at the Galore Creek project. A recent review and completion of the first season of construction indicates substantially higher capital costs and a longer construction schedule for the project. This, combined with reduced operating margins as a result of the stronger Canadian dollar, makes the project, as now conceived and permitted, uneconomic at current consensus long-term metal prices"
The board and management would be criminal to base a project on what people think metal prices will be in 10 years time - I am very bullish on metal prices but anybody that knows with certainty what the world will be doing in 10 years time is smoking something.
Still waiting for answer on existing copper/cobalt/nickel/lead with traces of silver and uranium - walk the talk Oly!! Show me a commercial plant in operation right now - if not do you think HNC will proceed on untested technology without a pilot plant first. Peelleeaassse!!!
I don't think HNC have a refinery/smelter capable of extracting all the metal from the concentrate - but this based on my basic research on their operations. Have a read of their IPO prospectus to see what they can do!!
I can't find CMR announcing the HNC will take all the cobalt/nickel - will keep looking but maybe a question for the AGM
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