Mike; First off, I love a good discussion. Actually, I will sometimes change my stance on a subject just to keep a discussion going, similarly to what Poly is being accused of over there (heehee).
Next off, I have followed your discussions on world chrome production with great interest.
Next off, present production methods used,Mainly in SA, require 10 furnaces utilizing a half million megawatts of power to produce a million tonnes of chrome. This does more than meet our North American requirements. However there is new technology coming onstream, that will greatly alter those requirements, although there is no way present producers would even consider updating their present facilities to accomodate this new technology.
There exists here an excellent opportunity for Canada to wrap their arms around this discovery and use it as a basis to lead the world in the new push to green technology. By using the green word they could easily overtake all other producers and gain a solid control of world chrome production.
Next off, you have to consider the implications of competition, which can easily determine, on it's own, the viability of any financing. Is anyone going to consider financing, say, a $300 million dollar facility to try and sew up all NA chrome needs for the next 25 years, when they know there is another one right next door that can offer the same product at maybe a slightly lower cost. Maybe they would be more comforable spending a bit more for a 50 year supply and knowing they have the market cornered??
The nickel question of course is a separate point. Maybe it would be included, with appropriate additional cost. Or maybe it would be kept out of the deal completely. It would be easily mined on it's own, once the required infrastructure was in place for mining chrome.
Finally, I do not see this as a question of whether one is better off investing in NOT as opposed to FWR. I think either one of them is going to come out of this in fine fashion. This is more a discussion on what the final outcome will actually look like, and of course it is all hypothetical, at least so far.
Regards
K
