Replies to post #69122 on Hiru Corporation (HIRU)

[delerious1]

We don't know the mine yet and you're going to pick 1??


"Approximately 80,000 inactive mines are littered across Australia"

[hardlesson]

I don't know what he'll say, but he has already stated that it won't be a good choice if it's a mine under "care and maintenance" which is the case with Avebury. He also stated he hopes it's not Nickel, I believe because of the flood of Indonesian lower grade Nickel that has flooded the market and shuddered other Nickel mines.

So if that's the case, he won't be impressed. Although he might surprise us and give us a more positive outlook for some reason.

That aside, for some reason the Sheik sees it as an opportunity. Possible he sees an eventual return in Nickel price, or he already is way ahead and is looking for offtake agreements at some point. You never know, but the Sheik has his money on the table, so let's see what more we learn that we don't know.

No doubt he'll (Jack) chime in later today, or technically tomorrow morning, since he's apparently in Australia right now, or somewhere across the planet. imo, from his "mate" comment yesterday.

[Jack_Herer]

Asked and answered.

So it appears they've acquired or are acquiring the Avebury nickel mine in Tas, as per Hiru Mining’s website. There's also some mention of copper, don't know what.

As Hardelson has reminded folks, my concerns with nickel is many nickel mines in Aus have shut down because of cheap nickel flooding the market from Indonesia. The price of nickel is down ~ 20% over the past year.
BHP, largest miner on the planet, shut down their entire nickel division in WA, they say until at least 2027. These are large mines with economy of scale, and they still can't compete with Indonesia. A small mine like Avebury, uh uh. They shut down earlier this year after reopening just 17 months before that.

As for the Avebury mine, I don't have time to look into it much. Obviously it's currently unprofitable.
I found one reference for the resource/reserve, it contains 29 Mt of ore @ 0.9% Ni. Reasonable size, but low grade for an underground nickel mine. Understandable why they had to go back on C&M, they'd be losing $$ hand over fist with the decline in nickel price.

And with 200 employees laid off, this is a small mine. I found a production figure somewhere that indicates annual production rate of 900,000 tpa (tonnes per annum). That is small, especially considering the low grades. An average mine is 3-5 times that. A large mine is 20+ times that.

So a small, unprofitable nickel operation on C&M is a disappointment as it is unlikely to reopen until China nukes Indonesia and the nickel market improves dramatically. Until then, it's just a liability. It wont make money in the near future (years...), there would be ongoing environmental remediation obligations, plus the legacy issues of 200 unemployed miners - did they get paid off at the end? The previous owner Mallee Resources went into receivership, so maybe not...

And that's one mining guy's opinion. Take it as you will.
A smaller, profitable gold mine would have been so much better....