Yep @JID - other posters have indicated some legacy contracts that would add to the C&M costs of Nifty, the other things are that the mine is complex in that it has open pit and significant underground dewatering and probably a lot of geotechincal monitoring to do, especially given its troubled geotechnical past. There are other Dept of Mines things such as egress and access standards as well as the maintenance of a lot of this infrastructure. The remote location of the project would also add to C&M costs, its not like its in an easy convenient location or anything.
While the mine is kept in a safe state to walk into, and have a look, actually resuming production from stopes or pits would require significant time and resources to do so. Nifty has the unique ability to swallow huge amounts of capital without any significant return and any potential buyer would be looking for elevated copper prices for an extended period to justify returning to production, and now they have the added bonus of needing new equipment, capital and would be looking to hire in a mining boom with all its attendant problems in finding good quality personnel. There must still be doubts about the resource model and the performance of stopes that will require careful geotechnical, grade control drilling and further evaluation otherwise the same issues that drove MLX to close Nifty will all reappear.
MLX Price at posting:
12.5¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
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