RE:Impact of a Weaker Loonie?The short answer to your questions are Yes Yes and No and Probably a wrong assumption.
The long answer is much more complicated.
First what are the main imputs?
These come readily to mind and are more or less in order of requirements.
Ammonia Nitrate
Ammonia Liquor
Detonators
Diesel
Micro Spheres
Packaging
Detonating Cord
To produce Ammonia Nitrate one needs a fairly large scale operation. Nordex is not in that leaque yet and is therefore dependent on a very limited number of sources for this product. Some of these plants are located in Canada, some in the U.S. and supply can even be obtained overseas. Most of these AN suppliers are also competitors of Nordex. Which makes the dynamic relationships even more interesting. Over the years Nordex has paired up with various suppliers. A canadian supplier in Manitoba was the preferred choice as it was independent. This plant was taken over by Austin Powders which competes in some of Nordex markets.
Sometimes as you may imagine the relationships have become strained as the desire to work together has to be balanced against commodity costs. There are actually some out there who would like to gobble up Nordex and could do it out of their cash float and not even miss it. The price of AN is often tied to the price of natural gas so the fracking revolution has been good for Nordex. AN prices though spike with crop prices as well. Nordex could possibly import AN from abroad, but this requires storage and probably and armed guard. Oh, and one last note this AN product is called industrial grade not farm grade. The industrial grade prills make better blasting agents and are coated so that they won't clump together. Much of Europe has banned AN production because of terrorism risks. The Middle East however has abundant low cost supplies. (Which was one reason that Adel Amin was a key director with his international language skills mid-east government connections and AN purchasing experience.)
Ammonia Liquor is used in their emulsion process. It is shipped as a liquid and has to remain hot or it will turn into an unworkable solid. This somewhat limits distances for shipping purposes. AN Liquor fortunately can be manufactured from AN prills. At one time Courtright Ontario produced AN and would have been an ideal choice to transport to Kirkland Lake. The prilling tower has been mothballed but might re-open some day. At present the plant only produces UAN which had been used in the scrubbers of the now mothballed Courtright Coal fired power plant. Another possibility would be the former DuPont C.I.L. plant located in Maitland Ontario. This plant was idled several years ago but there has been some talk about reopening it. I digress. At present I believe Nordex is limited to purchasing liquor from the U.S. market.
Fuel Oil
Detonators. Detonators are a major component of Nordex product lines. Once again detonator production requires much more capital to get up and running than what Nordex has available. There is not a Canadian detonator manufacturer. (This was one reason that John Kozak initial contacts in China and Jacques Levesque connections and follow through were valuable.)
Micro Spheres. These are the coolest little inventions. Microspheres provide the oxygen in the emulsion mixture. You actually see them everyday. Everytime you see a stop sign or the reflective paint on the lines of the road or on a jacket. I will let you investigate where these come from.
Best of luck to all.