Hi gunagadunni,High grade will only bring in the profits if you...

Hi gunagadunni,

High grade will only bring in the profits if you can mine it cheaply.

You only have to look at todays underground nickel producers like MCR.

They have a hard time making money because of the high production costs of underground deep mining.

And if you look at some of the grades MCR has, you will see that some are 6 or 7 and even close to 10% but they are expensive to mine.

The width and intervals are mostly small and they need to tunnel all the way to get to it, and mine those areas with handhold equipment.

Its extremely expensive and with todays low nickel prices most underground nickel miners are just keeping their heads above water, hoping for a higher nickel price.

I road the nickel boom a few years ago when nickel prices where high and corporate activity was rife.
Companies like Jubilee mines, Lionore , Allegiance mining where all taken over.
That was when making money was easy, but todays scenario is very different.

Open cut large tonnage is the go, unless you have the widths and large intervals of high grade underground.
For most this underground miners this scenario is a only a dream.

jojo