In a previous issue (T.N.M., Sept. 3 /90) we reported on a U.S. government publication that suggested Sherritt Gordon might be a customer for nickel concentrate from the undeveloped low- grade Six Mile deposit in Australia. We wish the Australian project well, but Sherritt needn’t look so far afield for potential refinery feed. In Quebec, Falconbridge Ltd.’s nickel reserves in the Ungava region won’t be of use to Sherritt, but Dumont Nickel says it has “indicated reserves” in the Amos area of 400 million tons at a low grade of 0.33% nickel.
Right in Manitoba there’s the Minago nickel deposit where Black Hawk Mining has outlined 18 million tons of 1.28% nickel. For comparison, Inco’s 421 million tons of proven and probable Canadian reserves average about 1.15% nickel.
This is an international business. Falconbridge, half-owned by a Swedish company, owns a mine in the Dominican Republic and refines its Canadian nickel concentrate in Norway. Inco, through a subsidiary, mines nickel ore in Indonesia for sale to Japan.
If Sherritt has to go halfway around the world for the product it needs, so be it. But we think the best sources of nickel ore for Canadian nickel producers might still be right here in Canada.
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