Miningweekly.com quoted Mr Terry MacGibbon CEO of FNX Mining as saying that the nickel market is skewed at the moment by a strike at Vale Inco's Sudbury and Voisey's Bay operations, which raises questions over the sustainability of the current price.
FNX also has mines in Sudbury, but stopped mining nickel ore in December 2008, when the metal's price fell last year, and is focusing at the moment on copper and precious metals rich ore.
Mr MacGibbon said that "I'm not sure if the price is sustainable. We don't think that this is a realistic nickel price that one could use to determine sustainability. Still, if it was realistic, it would probably make sense to mine nickel again at current prices."
However, the strike at Vale Inco also has other implications for FNX Vale has a long term processing agreement covering all FNX ore, and is currently running its Clarabelle mill with non striking staff, producing a copper concentrate, rather than nickel.
Mr MacGibbon also pointed out that, while the copper ore can sit in an inventory almost indefinitely, nickel ore can not be stockpiled or it will oxidize, which means the company must be sure it can process any ore that would be mined.
(Sourced from www.miningweekly.com)
