Rakali,You seem to have dragged across some rampers from the INL...

Rakali,

You seem to have dragged across some rampers from the INL thread. They are always good value for statements such as, the financial crisis in the US is a media blow up and the price of gold will drop, glad I sold my goldie stocks. As for factual information or insightful comments, forget it. Enough said.

Having a gold resource is no guarantee of income but IMO there could be potential to expand this operation by JV if the gold price stays at current levels (A$1100 oz). Gold resources will attract attention at these prices.
"Nickel is in serious decline and has been for the last year, while LME stocks are now at 5 year record levels. Thats why I say Nickel stinks. It will probably be the lowest 1/3 of producers that could contine to survive economically in the current climate. New operations that are using any new leach process really have the job in front of them."
If you look at the price of nickel it have been falling for about 5 years!! So it must be really smelly now. So why does nickel stinks? At what price does it not stink?
I think what really stinks is the cost of nickel production. Future nickel supplies will come from laterites. Innovative processing options are required as the current models do not work.
"There are also unmined nickel orebodies around running 10% Ni that can be brought into play quickly when prices improve. Any new low grade high volume venture has to be able to compete economically with the more compact traditional mines and processes. I still remember Murrin Murrin with a shudder."
Where are these 10% Ni resources and can they produce at 40-50,000tpa to meet the demands of economies such as China and India? Large resouces of Ni laterites running at 10% I've never heard of.. Laterites are typically <1-2% Ni. Some small rich pockets maybe. Not enough to meet demand.
I don't think you are alone with your view of Murrin Murrin. Your reaction is probably fairly typical of what the market thinks of PAL technology. So what happened with Murrin Murrin. Here are just a few points to consider:
1/ Cost blow out from $1b to $1.6b.
2/ Has never reached full production. (72% roughly).
3/ Operating cost of US$1.28 lb Ni aiming for US$1.0 lb- never achieved.
4/ Huge increase in sulphur and acid prices.
5/ Plant design problems - sued Fluor Daniel for $300m, settled for $155m. Caused delays in production.
Murrin Murrin now has a heap leach demonstation plant as well as the PAL plant.
Production Figures:
6 months ending 30 June 2007
Net profit $245.9m
Net cash flow $131.9m
6 months ending 30 June 2008
Net profit $50.9m
Net cash flow (90.4m).
Interesting that production cost increased from US$4.93lb (2007) to US$5.24lb(2008). Remember that this plant was designed to produce Ni at US$1.0lb (100% capacity).
So what really stinks. The price of Ni or the cost of production using PAL. Would the figures for Ravensthorpe be any different?
My money is on a new process which is not PAL and this is why JRV has always had huge potential to deliver an alternative.
It's not without risk (what speccy is) but if they pull this off we as investors will be richly rewarded.
If this process they are working on now can produce Ni for around US$2.0lb I'll be putting my money up to develop a pilot plant if the Chinese deal falls over.
I hope the Chinese have a process to make money, and don't repeat the mistakes of past projects.

Deepdiver