posted on
May 16, 2010 07:56PM
Actually EB they are much higher. The mining and milling cost including the Xstrata deductions works out to about $9.50+ a pound for sold nickel. I didn't include the cobalt and copper since it was so little of the production. When the amortization depletion etc gets added, cost per pound of finished nickel rises to the $13.50 level. I then didn't add the accumulated interest and company overhead. Admin cost were another $600,000 for the quarter as one example. The preferred dividends and debt interest would also have to be added to get a more accuarate cost for the quarter.
The increase in production will improve this somewhat, but with increased expense comes with increased production. Especially at deeper levels.