norilsk to close all wa mines

http://www.wabusinessnews.com.au/en-story/1/70454/Norilsk-to-close-all-WA-mines

This is quite interesting. Looking at the historical cash costs from Lion Ore days Black Swan had cash costs near $5 and Lake Johnston around $4. The decision to put them onto C&M would only be because they were not cash flow positive:
www.xstrata.com/assets/pdf/x_20070403_slides.pdf

(I realize the slides are from April 2007 but looking at other companies cash costs in April 2007, they're pretty similar today)

I can only imagine that the all in costs of running the mines exceeded the Australian dollar profit. I don't think this bodes well for other miners like MCR or PAN with moderately higher cash costs (though without an international parent company).