I'm sorry, but there are many, many examples globally where deep mines have been found and developed from scratch. When Falconbridge found Nickel Rim South they calculated that it had a 40% IRR at the head frame - and that was with 15% cost of capital, $4.50 per pound nickel price and the cost of sinking two full shafts 1.5km down into the earth. Yes they had other infrastructure there, but not on the door step - still a significant trucking distance away. Compared to twin shaft sinking to that depth, in an area prone to rock burst I might add, a mill complex and a few haul roads to the railway is a doddle.
This project isn't in the middle of nowhere. It's 30 mins drive to the railway, sealed highway, power infrastructure and gas pipeline, and 45 minutes drive to a deep water bulk handling port - all of which Sirius would have killed to have at the time at Nova. And that's before you put in decent roads to site, which will probably cut that to 20 minutes drive.
Again, if you don't look you will certainly never find it.
Yes shallow targets are better, but 650m isn't deep, and certainly isn't insurmountable for the right project. And this target is right here, right now. I'm sure after testing this they will take whatever lessons learned here and apply them elsewhere on the tenements, with the added impetus that they will now KNOW the system is capable of forming massive sulphide if that's what this pans out to be - a huge boost to understanding and potential, certainly puts them ahead of the pack in the Fraser range if it works. That's all that interests me at this stage.
MRD Price at posting:
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