I have issues with that article, it's poorly written and misleading.
I shouldn't get worked up because in the end it only matters if they sign a contract. In the past 2 weeks we found out the CEO bought 400,000 shares and the guy responsible for selling all of IAmGold's Niobium has come to work for Quantum. I'd wager that those 2 people think something will good will happen. Otherwise Dufresne wouldn't burn his bridges with IamGold and Dickie could have easily waited until after a deal is signed and bought shares @ .20 cents through his options, but he chose not too.
As for that article, let's see where to start.
"officials believe more than 100 tons of the element are lying more than 500 feet below agricultural land about 70 miles southwest of Lincoln."
100 tons? haha, closer to 100 million tons. The updated resource estimate Indicated Mineral Resource of 19.3 million tonnes grading at 67% purity and 83.3 million tonnes at 63%.
Next,
"Colorado-based Molycorp abandoned an Elk Creek niobium mine in the 1990s because it didn't appear that a mine could be profitable, but niobium prices have increased since then."
Molycorp abandoned all projects at this time, not because it wouldn't be profitable but because they required full resources focused on developing Mountain Pass, which is still their primary mine today. And yes, the price of Niobium has increased like the article said, but it didn't mention how it's price has increased 8X since then.
"Everybody sees it as a longshot," Gottula said.
Yes, nothing like an arbitrary viewpoint of some guy in Nebraska to sum the quality of this article up, I'm sure he has the inside track on what's going on in office in Canada.
"It would cost between $300 million and $400 million to create a Nebraska niobium mine that might employ as many as 500 people, Dickie has said."
This was also in the article
"The U.S. Geologic Survey estimates $400 million worth of niobium was imported in 2011, up from about $330 million the year before. Niobium hasn't been produced in the United States in significant amounts since the 1950s."
So if I'm reading this right any company with the $ can spend 300-400 million to be the only producer of a product that sells 400 million a year in this country alone. Not to mention the product sold is steadily increasing in value, and if they themselves require it for their products they'll be getting it at cost and able to increase profits in all their products that require Niobium? Does this not sound like a pretty smart business move?
