$1.40 Share Price Prediction, page-5

Podomono, that 3rd party report was based on the saprolite nickel-cobalt deposit only ( actually I thought it was $1.60 ish) but by comparison to peers, based on potential size and grade so far, its overly optimistic. I think the chickens came home to roost somewhat in regard all Ni-Co saprolite hopefuls when CLQ's PFS was published and the market took fright at the capex requirements, punishing CLQ's share price as a consequence. Its expensive to extract Ni from saprolites and its the reason two of the 3 saprolite mines in WA ( Ravensthorpe and Cawse are mothballed at recent nickel prices). If however G88's deposit proves to be DSO ( Direct Shipping Ore) then the equation changes, but where can it be transported and toll smelted thats a realistic economic option.... I'm not seeing it)

Certainly a huge gamble by the placement holders at 30c to turn a profit unless
a) there is an almighty pump before the dump ( but you can bet there will be a lot of state sellers that would feed into that as well)
or b) they come up with an extremely juicy announcement on deposit size and grade ( by comparison to peers) . I'm still predicting around 30 mill tonnes at around 0.6 - 0.7% Ni and 0.06 -0.07% Co which is not earth shattering, although extensional drilling may increase this in the future.

Finding rich, underlying nickel sulphide would of course change everything. But here's where I can't join the dots. Even today, they say... " In addition, recent geophysical exploration has located a number of bedrock sulphide targets within the project area that potentially represent the source of the oxide nickel mineralisation" . What I don't get is if the nickel assayed in the weathered ultramafic saprolite is sourced as a result of nickel sulphide phases in the ultramafic undergoing weathering, instead of the much more typical case of it being due to weathering of olivine ( Ni is present in olivines at a low content in ultramafic bodies) , then why has this not been demonstrated by petrographic examination of saprolite samples. Maybe it has been, but I have not seen any reference to this in announcements. Petrographic examination is a pretty straightforward exercise for a metallurgical lab equipped with an SEM fitted with analytical instrumentation ( any half way decent lab has these nowadays) . I note other Ni-Co explorers have performed such petrographic studies of their saprolite samples as part of the evaluation "toolkit". From the petrographic examination it should be very apparent if nickel sulphide particles within the ultramafic are weathering and converting to nickel oxide, since some residual traces of associated nickel sulphide will still likely be present. It seems to me the proverbial "bleeding obvious" assessment to have done at some point of time. Consequently, so far, it seems to me there is at best only a very , very tenuous link between the nickel in the saprolite and the possibility of some rich nickel accumulation under or adjacent the ultramafic saprolite orebody.

I am still out. Not to say I won't buy in again but want to see what the JORC reveals and how the market reacts.