Re: Should KXL divert energy to the Ring of Fire?
posted on
May 25, 2008 05:23PM
Creating shareholder wealth by advancing gold projects through the exploration and mine development cycle.
Personally I was not too pleased with seeing KXL staking in the ring of fire. I pesonally want them to focus most of their energy, brains and money at Hercules. I know many fellow KXL supporters like plays up there so I may upset some of you, sorry
The Ring of Fire may eventually prove me wrong, but I think it is extremely unlikely that there will be any development there for more than a decade. The infrastructure and development costs in addition to the time delays of such massive projects will only make sense if there are massive findings in the order of 50 to 100 million tonnes of ore at a minimum.
James Bay lowlands is one of the worlds largets wetlands with no infrastructure. Everything has to come in by road, and all the nickel sulfide concentrate produced has to come out on an all season road, not just winter roads. Building a tailings dam may also be a challenge. Note that about 80 to 90% of sulfides taken out of the ground will end up as tailings and they have to be treated properly for long term stability. I havn't seen a topographic map of the area and I don't know the snow and water flow, so I can't realy tell, but for sure there will have to be years of investigations and determinations before any such tailings will be approved and then built.
For the sake of the Canadian mining industry and the people living up north, I hope that the development will continue and eventually enough rich nickel ore will be found to justify development. Kodiak may be lucky and get a buy-out for its part of that play, but I don't think it is in its best interest to divert a lot of energy to a region where first of all we came too late, secondly there will certainly be no mine developments for at least 10 years, and thirdly we are with some luck within a year of so in establishing a great gold find in an area with excellent infrastructre. I think we should leave the Ring of Fire region for others to explore.