Court case for last three years, Axiom the minnow against Sumitomo Metals and Mining Great white Shark. Judge finally handed down decision last week - Axiom win. SMM have been wasting court time. SMM got an injunction preventing Axiom proceeding with developing the site which was heard yesterday - judge tossed injunction out, said no further injunctions will be allowed, costs to Axiom. Here's what they were fighting over:
"Isabel Nickel Project The Isabel Nickel Project is considered to be one of the largest nickel-laterite deposits in the Pacific. The project has previously been extensively explored and developed by mining and engineering industry leaders, International Nickel Company Limited (INCO) and Kaiser Engineering (Kaiser). Extensive testing of the Kolosori deposit was conducted by INCO from the 1960s to 1970s. During this time, INCO completed a substantial amount of work across both deposits with the intention of bringing them both into production. Work included 4409 test pits, 1484 gemco power auger holes, 394 hand auger holes, 121 banks drill holes, 43 winkie diamond core holes and a feasibility study. The project was reignited by Kaiser Engineering in 1993-1995. Kaiser excavated an additional 34 new test pits across the deposits in order to evaluate the historical work and directly compare results with the 43 INCO pits. Kaiser’s subsequent report highlighted several tangible opportunities, including: the deposit being classified into a high iron limonite zone at the surface and a low iron saprolite zone at depth the total thickness of the saprolite was not accurately tested at depth due to the limitations of equipment and the overall depth of these pits - this is important because the saprolite zone in these styles of deposits have the highest Ni-Co grade estimates of resources (non-JORC code compliant) dating back to 1970s had been made and subsequently validated by Kaiser Engineering – this included the manipulation of cut-off grades to increase tonnage the INCO estimates of the resource figures for the deposits are non-JORC compliant, having been calculated prior to the inception of the JORC code the Kaiser report calculation did not include the full lateritic profile of the deposits - therefore there is a substantial upside potential for tonnage because the saprolite zone at depth was not included in the calculation. The project also has several other attractive development characteristics, including: the main area of nickel-cobalt mineralisation is free from human habitation mineralisation occurs from the surface the deposit is very close to the shore line, thereby allowing easy seaborne access to regional processing hubs a deep water area adjoining Isabel Island will form an ideal loading facility and harbour. Mining via a Direct Shipping Ore (DSO) approach has the benefits of minimising impacts on the environment, as well as significantly reducing the immediate and overall capital requirements. Ultimately, a DSO approach will function to enhance and accelerate the generation of significant cash flows. This is due to the much shorter time frame involved with the DSO process, as compared to the time required to build a conventional high pressure acid leaching process plant (HPAL) or using alternative process methods."
http://www.axiom-mining.com/irm/content/solomon-islands.aspx?RID=217
159mt at 1.045% Ni and 0.07%Co. Measured reserve under the old AIMM measurements (
not JORC) of 15.33mt.
Drilling recommencing this week. Previous (non-Axiom) drilling only tested to about 6m depth so far.
