Jim Gallagher and Abraham Drost's Clean Air Metals Inc. (AIR) closed unchanged at 22 cents on 190,000 shares. The company has received a preliminary economic assessment for its Thunder Bay North nickel, copper and platinum group elements project, 50 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay in Northwestern Ontario. The project is now credited with 14.55 million tonnes indicated at 0.23 per cent nickel, 0.42 per cent copper, 167 grams of cobalt, 1.54 grams of palladium, 1.28 grams of platinum, 0.1 gram of gold and 2.3 grams of silver per tonne, with another 8.1 million tonnes inferred at lower grades.
Clean Air proposes a $367-million mine that would run for 10 years at 3,600 tonnes per day, enough to support a discounted net present value of $378-million after taxes. Mr. Gallagher, executive chairman, says that this initial study -- he expects more to come in other words -- brings together two previously independent deposits into one mining plan that is -- look, a weasel! -- "relatively low risk" and which displays "robust financial metrics." The dream sheet, he says "is a minimum base case that Clan Air Metals will continue to attempt to derisk towards prefeasibility" -- apparently conceding that there is still significant risk to be removed.
Mr. Drost, CEO, also chimed in and he continued in that vein, stating that the study "sets a mine plan that allows the company to move forward with several derisking objectives." He proposes upgrading the claims to leases, dealing with the regulators and the locals regarding the mine permitting and impact and benefit processes, carrying on with the environmental work and starting work on prefeasibility work.