As expected the riots in New Caledonia caused a spike in Nickel price due to supply concerns. Now that the government have regained control of the archipelago the Nickel price is coming back down.
New Caledonia is titled as 3rd largest supplier of Nickel globally, hence the media spin and marketing reaction when this supply was threatened but for those that have been following the Nickel thematic, New Caledonia have had significant issues with Nickel production well before the riots. For example Koniambo (KNS) SNL and Prony, unable to remain profitable and competitive with Indonesia in low nickel price and have been reliant on French funding in the billions. It would be the same as a high cost nickel operation in WA closing down due to becoming non profitable then rioting after the fact. It has no significant effect on the Nickel supply.
My concern and relevance to Aston is that this event gave opportunity for institutional investors to dump shares and traders to take advantage of a short term media event and ultimately retail to pick up the tab at a premium prior to riots.
I would like to see the register filled with long term holders and institutions who are investing in this project and the team for the fundamentals and long term financial opportunity. I’m sure management are working hard as always to make Aston known to those people and bring Aston to the Canadian markets.
ASO Price at posting:
1.5¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
