To support Hoov's commentary, anyone can google EARTH and see that our planet has three physical components. They are the earths crust which has negligible ammounts of base metals like nickel but is 30 to 50 km thick. The next layer is the mantle which is 2900 km thick. The core is 2300km thick and interestingly enough is hypothesized to cocist of nickel/iron. Eagle one is magmatic, which means it is the result of magma flowing from deep within the earth, probably thousands of kms. movement of the earths crust due to geothermal action offered weakness for magma to get to surface. The weakness in this case has been called a conduit. It has been detirmined that it is open at depth, which could be a long long way down. I have been underground at Inco in Sudbury, and it is warm down at the bottom, but not as warm as I hope it is at the bottom of Eagle 1. Our dilemna is the earths crust has moved around a bit in the last billion years or so which makes it possible the bottom of the conduit was carted off somewhere and our conduit is not very large indiameter in the context of the earths girth. Before accountants can authorize 200k for a hole, we should be respectful that they keep the geos enthusiasm in check and ensure exhaustive DD on where to steer the drill bit. The race to prove up the chromite became a problem and the holes are cheaper. Someone had to make the call on that one so Eagle 1 got delayed for in my opinion: just cause.

I've been around here this long, I may as well stay till the end.

Mike