I am a little confused by the direct shipping of 3% Ni, where are they shipping it? I have a hard time believing a smelter would be able to do anything with it (and I can't seamt to find Hoov's post). I am not 100% but I believe typical concentrate grades (shipped to a smelter) would be in the vicinity of 30-50% Ni. Would the direct shipping be to a concentrator in Sudbury, and anything over 3% is uneconomical to ship?

Not saying it is impossible but I have never heard of a mine that ships ore 1000 km to be concentrated by someone else. It means the mine would be paying to ship 9700 t of waste for every 300t of Ni. I would prefer a more traditional plan that mines at a .5-1% cutoff and concentrates on site. Seems to me this would avoid substantial costs and logistical headaches especially if the deposit ends up being deeper then 1200m