Interesting 'prediction' by Norilsk executive, but, for those who have studied mine depletion of nickel, and the increasingly greater demands for nickel (it is essential for stainless steel) in the mushrooming economies of China, India, Brazil, etc., it becomes obvious that the comments by Norilsk's Morozov are 'propaganda for a purpose'. Here's a nice snippet:

"The year 2008 will be the time of stability, and the highly volatile environment of 2007 is very unlikely to occur with speculators reducing their focus on the nickel market," Morozov said in a statement posted on Norilsk Nickel's website.

Norilsk is, like most other major mining companies in the world, on the hunt for more new resources to tap into, because, in reality, they know the demand is actually going to increase, and current supply rates will not be able to keep up with the present level of demand in upcoming years (much less the increase in demand). The reason Norilsk makes such a statement is because they want the companies they try to buy out to believe that the resources they have are not worth as much as they really are. The bashers who come onto this website follow the same ploy. If they can talk down the value, and convince the unwitting that what they hold is not as valuable as it really is, they can buy their shares at a lower price, when the nervous and naive believe their propaganda and panic and sell. I think Lawrence Roulston's latest assessment of the future of base metals is much more accurate than Norilsk's alleged 'assessment'. I paste below his recent comments off of the Kitco website (direct link to the piece pasted below that):

While we wait for the official pronouncement from the government bean-counters of whether the U.S. economy grew by a percent or shrank by a percent, we should look carefully at what it means to the rest of the world and to the metals markets. Popular opinion holds that a slowdown in America will result in a world-wide slowdown. Such a slowdown would bring down metal prices.

The first thing to note is that copper is only a few pennies from its all time record high and the other metals all remain very strong. The realities of today’s economic world easily explain why metal prices are so strong at the height of anxiety over the American economy. The short explanation is that the U.S. is far less important in the context of the world economy than it was even a few years ago.

China is presently the largest consumer of metals in the world. Many people cling to the grossly outdated notion that China’s economic growth is a function of exports to the U.S. The reality is that exports to America accounted for a mere 8% of China gross domestic product (GDP) last year and that figure continues to decline. China’s exports to the U.S. grew by 5% last year, but exports to oil exporting nations soared by 45%. China’s exports to its BRIC (Brazil-Russia-China-India) partners grew even faster, expanding by a staggering 60% over the previous year.

The story is similar throughout the developing world. For example, Korean exports to the U.S. last year declined 20%, but overall exports from Korea grew by 20%. The majority of exports from developing economies are now being absorbed by other developing economies.

A study by world banking giant HSBC determined that capital spending in the developed world expanded by 1.2% last year. In striking contrast, capital spending in the developing world grew by 17%.

Economic growth in the developing world is now driven by infrastructure development, internal consumption and trade with other developing nations. The evidence of that reality can be seen in metal prices that remain strong in the face of continued forecast for their decline.

by Lawrence Roulston

To read on Kitco, click on the below link (or copy and paste in browser):

http://www.kitco.com/ind/Resopp/roul...