re: anyone follow? arhidas ArhidasANL would be interesting if it...

re: anyone follow? arhidas Arhidas

ANL would be interesting if it could get production to around 40,000 tpa. I think that Murrin Murrin is barely breakeven at present, though this may have changed following the recent shutdown.

Nickel will come from laterites eventually, if only for the world running out of sulphide ore. But I am sceptical of the economic viability of HPAL atm. When I think of it I am reminded of the Russians testing a prototype for a probe to withstand the Venutian surface. At the end of one test cycle a scientist became somewhat amused after he opened the chamber and found that the probe had been melted into a puddle, with two of the camera lenses peering up at him like eyes. But that was a long time ago, and on the Venutian surface it is about 460 C and 100 Earth atmospheres.

Ore mixed with sulfuric acid and heated to 400 C in an autoclave. That is some mud-bath!

Billy