I have said in the past that Nickel is king for us and I still believe that will be the market driver. However, I have mistakenly discounted the value of the chromitite deposit and I'm sure I am not the only one. In doing some research, it appears that South Africa produces nearly 50% of the global demand for ferrochrome with India and Kazakstan producing 20% and 15% respectively. Chromex Mining had their first production at a new mine in Bushveld on July 24 of this year. I have reviewed a number of reports saying global demand which is linked to stainless steel production will remain strong. One wrinkle is South Africa has the ferrochrome furnaces and they apparantly are not operating at 100% capacity. China is factoring greatly in the demand for ferrochrome and accounts for 18% of global demand and is increasing.

The significant statistic for us is that United States consumes 14% of the global production. With the ever increasing cost of fuel, labor, and shipping, being close to that huge market with rail transport is an extremely positive factor for developement of the Blackbird orebody. Another positive is XStrata is a producer in South Africa and of course has major mines in Canada. With their proprietary technology and experience in the chromitite mining and ferrochrome production operations, as well as having customers all over the world, XStrata should love to develope Blackbird to satisfy their North American markets while opening up capacity in South Africa for the Chinese growth.

"Blackbird...I'll have he!!"

Mike