We read of nickel mine closures and mine suspensions and wonder how this affects our Noront stock. Why are we even bothering to look for nickel with all the closure reports. The problem with some of these articles is that they don't offer enough detail. A recent one posted here discussed BHP's suspension of Raventhorpe. Below is a more detailed account of why. Check out the grade of nickel for Ravensthorpe and the statement of intensive processing requirements. (Please read below).

Now when reading compare this to eagle one:(sorry for the large font can't make it smaller)

High nickel grades ( 6% to 7%) within the massive sulphide zone of Eagle One make

due to the reduced profitability prospects, decreasing scope of nickel market, and increased gap between projected capital expenditure and production volumes.

Following this decision, the total workforce based at Perth-functional area of Ravensthorpe will be reduced to 800 employees by June 2009 – a loss of 1,800.

The Ravensthorpe integrated mine and primary processing facility is located 35km east of Ravensthorpe, in a band of remnant vegetation in an agricultural region next to the Fitzgerald River National Park about 570km south-east of Perth, Western Australia, and 155km west of Esperance.

The project involved open-pit mining from three nickel deposits, and a hydrometallurgical process plant to produce up to 50,000t of contained nickel and 1,400t of contained cobalt per annum in a mixed hydroxide intermediate product (MHP) for further processing at BHP Billiton's Yabulu Nickel Refinery in Queensland.

Ravensthorpe was a laterite nickel project which, because of the ores' low grade, and expensive and intensive processing requirements, has caused BHP some cost and schedule headaches.

The project was originally approved in March 2004 with a budget of $1,340m. But by November 2006, capital costs rose to $2.2bn. The company did not officially open the operation until 23 May 2008, although commissioning took place in December 2007 with first production of MHP achieved in October 2007; it was originally scheduled to start production in mid-2007.

Ravensthorpe geology

The Ravensthorpe region is underlain by basement rocks of the Albany-Fraser Orogen and the Yilgarn Craton, which constitute the bulk of the Western Australian land mass. These rocks consist of granite, gneiss and minor enclaves of sedimentary and volcanic rocks. At Bandalup Hill, lateritic nickel deposits up to 80m thick are developed over ultramafic rocks.

Mineralisation occurs in limonite (high iron, low magnesium and calcium, upper levels) and saprolite (low iron, high magnesium, deeper levels) ores in the three deposits – Halley's, Hale-Bopp and Shoemaker-Levy

Reserves

The three ore bodies have a proven reserve of 125.3Mt at 0.73% nickel and 0.032% cobalt, and a probable reserve 137.9Mt at 0.57% nickel and 0.026% cobalt, giving a total of 263.3Mt at 0.65% Ni and 0.029% Co. The reserves ensured a project life of 21 years.

Our grade and the option of shipping unprocessed or makes our prospects completely different. We also have the other metals, copper, platinum, palladium silver, and very HIGH percentage chromium. With the news of further expanding eagle one, Noront will be in a class of its own.