RE:RE:RE:I Think They Will Have To Drill The Van TargetI agree that we will not go to production without a partner. If they don't have a parter already then I think it would be better to spend the money advancing a known product, Decar, rather than trying to expand the size of an already massive project by drilling at VAN. If the VAN numbers come up short then we have wasted time and money. If nickel prices move up Decar is enough to get a line up of JV prospects. If nickel prices go down VAN doesn't help. So since Nickel is currently moving up I think we would be better advancing a known product (Making Decar look better through a Bankable FS) and selling this to potential JV partners. If the nickel price moves up a couple of dollars and the stock price tests the $1 level again then either scenario works since dilution at $1 would not be bad. But if interested JV partners wanted to see the VAN potential then we dig.
AlternativeView wrote: We are never "going into production". It won't happen. FPX has no employees and will never raise the $1B plus that mine development would cost, even if that was the plan, which it isn't. Just forget about it.
The trick now is to maximize the value of our holdings prior to a new JV, or sale with a really big company that can develop the Decar property and run it for 50 to 100 years. That assumption was the basis of my comments.
Baptiste is a known quantity. What is the value of Van at this point in time? Could these two targets reasonably be separated within some sort of single JV structure? If you can envision such a plan then please post your ideas. Because I cannot figure out any way to do this.
macaw wrote: I would rather them use the funds to advance Decar. We still need a "Bankable Feasible Study" I believe. With nickel prices moving up right now the further along on Decar the better. I don't see the advantage of drilling VAN at the moment. Decar is so large and open in a few directrions that they could probably double or triple the tonnes per day and Decar would still last 20 or so years. Any product from VAN would be so heavily discounted that it would have little impact on the project. Also, if we use the money on VAN without moving Decar forward we will likely have to finance near these levels again. My biggest fear is we go into production with 500 mln shares or so outstanding and we are still trading at less the $1.
If there is a JV on the table right now then it might make sense subjest to the details of the JV deal.
AlternativeView wrote: Just stepped out of the shower after running this around in my head. I can think of no JV structure that would do justice to the interests of FPX shareholders - and management figures heavily amoung these - where Van remains a substantially unknown factor.
Development planning also requires some additional clarity around the ultimate potential of the Van target.
We probably need a minimum of 10 holes for about 5,000 meters at a budget of about $1M. I can't see anyway around this and FPX likely can't either. So we might as well get on with it.