97th Sydney Mining Club Luncheon
Heron Resources & Weda Bay
Laterite Nickel Surging to Fill a Gigantic Gap
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China's per capita stainless steel consumption patterns look like rocketing as Korea's did - and they've only just left the launch pad. But where will the nickel come from? The proportion of nickel discovered as sulphide is falling. Nickel laterites are again surging as the main contender to fill the shortfall. With tail feathers still in a bucket of water from last time, the investment community is listening closely as to why this time will be fiasco-free. And it is listening hard. After all 75% of the world's measured nickel resources are in oxide form and the pressure leach technologies have succeeded - sometimes.
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We present two of the guns on the new wave. Heron Resources Limited has Inco and BHPB behind it and vast tracts of laterite around Kalgoorlie. Toronto-listed Weda Bay Minerals Inc. has millions of tonnes of nickel metal in Indonesia and is also driving hard on feasibility studies. But to quote BHPB's Big Chip himself, 'Every nickel resource requires its own technology, that is an issue'. Minara's Peter Johnson thinks all generations of HPAL processes will always be hard. This plays right into the hands of the big players who are solely capable of delivering both the massive workforces to worry the technical problems to death and 'making bankable' the US$1.2-2.0 billion tag. With 35Mt of nickel metal in resources, New Caledonia is offering 15 year holidays. The world is watching Inco's Goro and BHPB's Ravensthorpe. They are bellwethers. Laterite must be cracked. Even if you only invest in sulphide nickel, you need to understand how the laterite sector can drive the nickel price - and when. Not to be missed!
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