ASO - Media, page-473

Unfortunate to see an Australian Nickel mine Panoramic closing down their Nickel operation due to effects of Indo ramp up and subsequent low Nickel price.

This raises two main points,

Savannah was a high cost producer, deep underground Nickel sulphide operation with tight margins, the project was only profitable with a high Nickel price.

Aston will be low cost due to open pit similar to other projects in operation and recent PFS such as CNC and FPX and GIGA who are also open pit and low cost such as Mt Keith who has remained in production over multiple Nickel high and low price cycles.

This advantage of being large scale low cost improves the robustness of the project and decreases risk of a shutdown due to low commodity prices which is inevitable due to Nickel being cyclical. Aston is quality project well positioned to supply Nickel for decades making it a favourable investment for a larger company to purchase or supply an off-take agreement.