But surely MMX have to come up with a positive NPV for Jack Hills to have any value to Mitsubishi. The outcome of the Jack Hills feasibility study was that it was not feasible and did not return a positive NPV. JH has no JORC-compliant reserve - which would normally be expected as an outcome from any feasibility study prior to an investment decision.
The only Mitsubishi comment recently was to Reuters, 19/09/11, and its not particularly over-committing:
"Kobayashi also told the newspaper that the company is currently studying the commercial feasibility of The Jack Hills iron ore project in Australia with a local resources firm and hopes to reach a conclusion by March 2012.
"The basic issue is the economics. It's a difficult decision, but we would like to undertake the project. The best thing would be if a customer (a steelmaker) would participate as a partner," Kobayashi told The Nikkei.
MMX Price at posting:
27.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held