Financially = higher cost to operate. The average cost to...

Financially = higher cost to operate. The average cost to produce nickel in Indonesia is over USD$9,000 a tonne.

We saw what happened in Timor. Dissent was met with elections and a break away province becoming a nation.
Sulawesi ( where most Indo nickel is mined ), is very close to Timor.
Regional ( provincial etc ), and national stability are crucial to the overall cost of business.

Indonesia, the world’s largest muslim nation, has a hard time with violent groups. As we see here, the terror group IS has influence there. So do others.

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/attack-on-indonesia-church-leaves-one-dead-several-injured

This kind of thing is not unusual at all for that country.

What do we think happens when that kind of group/its followers/others who jump on the bandwagon see their environment destroyed while realising that Chinese companies are taking most of the money as well? Does China have a good reputation in the muslim world or… oh- Xinjiang & the Uighurs who are often reported to be suffering forced sterilisation etc.

https://www.todayonline.com/commentary/buddhist-temple-attacks-point-deeper-fault-lines-indonesia

https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/could-violence-against-the-ethnic-chinese-in-indonesia-happen-again/

Indonesian born Chinese people aren’t even spared.

It sucks we have to think of these things but it’s the world we live in.

If we are reading this in Western media it’s a safe bet that locals have been talking about it for a lot longer & know a lot more about the harm being done to their long term survival due to loss of fishing/agriculture.

Then we have the Phillipines. Much of their mining is in the south. Ahem ahem just a short trip from Mindanao.

Then we have New Cal.

https://www.mining.com/web/macron-calls-state-of-emergency-over-protests-in-new-caledonia/

Happily we can compete with the lowest cost producers so if peace does reign- which I hope it does- our projects will most likely go ahead. If, however, any significant disruptions occur in any of the three above areas things could get wild very quickly regarding nickel pricing.

It appears the world is pretending everything is ok with nickel when it really isn’t. Three of the biggest producers have a lot of tension- which has already proven itself deadly- on their hands right in or close to their nickel mining centres.