Falco moves to prefeasibility stage on Nickel Rim. (Mining Around the North).There are many more steps to be taken by Falconbridge Ltd.'s geologists before development of the Nickel Rim South property can become a full-fledged mine. "We are in the midst Adv. 1. in the midst - the middle or central part or point; "in the midst of the forest"; "could he walk out in the midst of his piece?" midmost of a geotechnical drilling program" as part of pre-feasibility assessment for the digging of an exploratory shaft, says Mike Welch Mike Welch (born September 28 1978) is a British entrepreneur, and managing director of online tyre retailer Blackcircles.com. Biography Born in Liverpool, England, Welch left school aged 16 and began working as a tyre fitter. , Falconbridge's manager of geology in Sudbury. Welch says that the work being done establishes several critical criteria before further exploration work can be done underground. It is part of a careful, multi-step capital request process adopted by Falconbridge since its integration with Noranda. "It's not like the old days when we used to say, 'Here's the project, it's going to cost us $500 million, please give us the money.' Now, we have to do it in a series of steps," he says. The site, located two kilometres north of the Greater Sudbury Greater Sudbury (2006 census population 157,857) is a city in Northern Ontario, Canada. Greater Sudbury was created in 2001 by amalgamating the cities and towns of the former Regional Municipality of Sudbury, along with several previously unincorporated geographic townships. Airport, is being looked at because of the discovery nearly two years ago of high grades of nickel, copper and platinum-group metals. Current data indicates 3.8 million tonnes of ore in the footwall foot·wall n. Geology 1. The mass of rock underlying a mineral deposit in a mine. 2. The underlying block of a fault having an inclined fault plane. zone consisting of 1.7 per cent nickel, 5.1 per cent copper, 0.02 per cent cobalt, 2.3 grams per tonne of gold, 3.3 grams per tonne of platinum and 3.8 grams per tonne of palladium. In the contact zone, there is an estimated 2.3 million tonnes of ore with 1.7 per cent nickel, 0.9 per cent nickel, 0.04 of cobalt' with .2 grams per tonne of gold and 0.5 grams per tonne each of platinum and palladium. "These are inferred resources, which is the lowest class in the confidence level, but we are confident in that data," says Welch. "The deposit has a real upside potential Upside potential The amount by which analysts or investors expect the price of a security may increase. upside potential The potential price or gain that may be expected in a security or in a security average, generally stated as the dollar for growth." He says the report on the geotechnical drilling and the prefeasibility of the shaft is due to the audit committee in July or August, which it is hoped, based on the data, will approve a feasibility study "A Feasibility Study" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It first aired on 13 April, 1964, during the first season. It was remade in 1997 as part of the revived The Outer Limits series with a minor title change. on the shaft. Feasibility studies The analysis of a problem to determine if it can be solved effectively. The operational (will it work?), economical (costs and benefits) and technical (can it be built?) aspects are part of the study. Results of the study determine whether the solution should be implemented. of the shaft, including how the shaft itself will be built, will likely be ready for approval next spring. "It's a rigorous and disciplined process. And it's a lot of money so you've got to make sure you do it right. Too many mistakes have been made in the past," says Welch. |
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