"Back in March 1995 Teck Corporation acquired 10.4 percent of Diamond Fields for $108 million. At this time they had 30 million tonnes of Nickel Copper and Cobalt. So, based on their 30 million tonnes their market cap was over 1 billion dollars. The price of nickel back then was around $3.70 per lb."

On one hand I totally relate to your train of thought, on the other I think these comparisons may be difficult to make. I believe in 95 the market was pretty good prior to 2000 and certainly operating expenses were considerably lower... yes? The overall sentiment would have been much more into risk taking than today given the risky financial straits companies find themselves in now. Even very liquid companies could find that their liquid assets are frozen in another crunch just like we ourselves might find our dry powder has exploded along with the banks/investment brokers who have ..... gone broke.... owing to the fact that the parent company was one of those that wasn't playing nice in previous years and whose paper has become toilet paper. That's also something to think about. Imagine when people try to get their cash out all at once to get into gold or just to get their money in their own hands only to find that the doors have been closed for the day due to a computer glitch......meaning there's none left.

The above is a fictional scenario which none of us could possibly imagine happening. :)