Interesting little company. Did a series of asset swops to leave them with half of the 4th largest Nickel deposit in the world.
The deposit itself is in the Philippines has been known about for 30 years but due to low prices and lack of demand in the Far East it was never exploited. With the explosion in demand from India and China the nickel price has climbed from $2 to $6.50 but oddly enough is still considered low.
The final approval stage for exploitation is just about to be approved and extraction will begin. The company already has one contract with a Japanese smelter and is in discussions with smelters in a series of countries.
Nothing clever about the operation, as the ore is of sufficiently high grade, they dig it up and ship it out. Infrastrucure is already in place for operation.
TMC is currently priced at 18m, the initial Japanese contract is worth 4m and each additional contract will hopefully be at this level or greater.
Final approval turns the company into a producer and each additional contract simply increases their size.
The management is tight with cash and has some good quality mining skills onboard.
The Philippine government is fast tracking the final approval and the company says it expects it shortly.
One to hold for approval and through the series of RNS's as more contracts are won. Company should be worth 50m in 6 months and 100m in 12-18 months.
Buy it, ignore it, just pointing this one out.

Some positive purchases coming through this morning. Hope to see a movement in SP soon, as first shipment is immenent.

Spread has been narrowed this morning, maybe to encourage a bit of trading.

How much risk is there in TMC, bearing in mind, that they are in a tsunami region and their sea defences don't look up to much.

News released on the ASX market, so an ops update should be coming on AIM for TMC and IVK


http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20070305/pdf/3119ph547m7j9p.pdf


5 March 2007

Company Announcements

The Australian Securities Exchange Ltd.

Dear Sir

Re: Second Shipment of Nickel Ore Leaves Berong Port

Berong Nickel Corporation, in which the Company has an 18.7% interest, has advised that a second shipment of laterite ore departed the Berong anchorage area on 2 March 2007. The shipment of approximately 51,000 tonnes ore was loaded in under seven days and is destined for the Chinese market.
A third ship of approximately 50,000 tonnes is expected to commence loading around 6 March 2007, with a fourth ship of similar capacity planned around 20 March. Approximately 100,000 tonnes of laterite ore is currently stockpiled at the coast and available for these shipments.
Demand for laterite ore of the quality and grade produced at Berong exceeds supply by a large margin. To meet this demand Berong Nickel Corporation is rapidly expanding production and building additional stockpiling facilities. Daily mine production is expected to increase to in excess of 3,000 wet metric tonnes per day, and maintained throughout the current dry season.
To date, mine production has come from the lower grade area referred to as the 'bulk metallurgical sample area'. However, future production will come from the 'commercial' mining area where grades will be higher. The access road to this area has been completed and bench formation commenced. This area will supply the majority of ore for the current year.

Mr. George Bujtor, CEO of Berong Nickel Corporation, commented:
"1 am pleased to see how well the start-up of commercial operations has progressed. The whole team is to be congratulated for their diligence, effort and dedication. We can now confidently look forward to the future as we rapidly increase production at Berong to an annualised 1.5 million wet metric tonnes per year from 2008".

Yours faithfully INVESTIKA LTD

What is the market value of unrefined laterite ore per ton?

TMC is selling these samples at 20% of the LME price. 21,000 at last check a few months ago, so TMC should be getting circa 4200 per tonne nickel. Nickel content in these samples is about 1.8%. Therefore a 50,000 ton shipment should be worth approximatley 3,780,000 times 56.1% for TMC share equals 2,120,580 ball park.

Just checked cash price today is 22,602 per ton.Equals 2,282,349 ball park as above.

The 50,000 tonnes was wet ore which is approx 1.5 times heavier than dry ore. So you'd need to factor this in to your calculation as well.

Oilyrag where did you find out they are selling at 20% LME.

From a mate who has held 50,000 plus of this stock from day one. I believe he found out from Atlas Consolidated in the Phillipines. I have had no reason to doubt his sources but can't confirm with him as he is spending a few weeks on holiday in Thailand at the moment. I have double checked my copies of all RNS's and can't see it in there. Also like to point out that these are ball park figures as halifax asked the question and I only imparted what I base all my calcs on. Hope this satisfies you for now, good luck to all holders.

The numbers look impressive. Do we have any idea of the cost of production per ton including shipping and port handling charges? It would be useful if TMC could tell shareholders what the actual pure nickel yield is on the first shipments.

Last night was the highest closing price for TMC last year. Hopfully onwards and upwards from here. This is fast becoming a liquid stock, strangely the price only moved up after a few larger sales. Institutions are waiting to buy any availiable stock, so beware it is possible that once you sell you may not get back in by shorting.

Another nice gain today plus 6p. Keep the pressure on MM's with buying and this stock will keep moving.

Yup - looking good now.

There is a clear technical run up to 180, once it breaks past 180 the sky is the limit.

http://business.guardian.co.uk/marketforces/story/0,,2029295,00.html#article_continue

Market lifted by mining talk, Wall Street's bright start

Nick Fletcher
Thursday March 8, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

A rise in metals prices and a touch of corporate news lifted the mining sector today.

Kazakhmys added 32p to 11.24 after it made a move into the petroleum business with the purchase of Dostan-Temir, a Kazakhstan based company which has the right for an exploration contract in the west of the country. Kazakhmys chairman Vladimir Kim said the move was the first step to diversifying its business.

Seymour Pierce said the deal was a surprise, and advised clients to hold the shares.
"Unexpectedly from our perspective, Kazakhmys has decided to move into the oil and gas sector rather than launch the expected bid for Eurasia, the diversified Kazakh mining group," said the broker's analyst Charles Kernot. "The company will publish its financials for 2006 on March 15 so there may be more information on this and the potential Eurasia acquisition at that time."

Credit Suisse, joint broker to Kazakhmys, added, "Next week's results could contain further acquisition announcements and numbers on the Dostan acquisition, in our view. Outside of petroleum, nickel, zinc, iron ore and coal are also at the top of the group's wish list as they strive to become the 'BHP of Kazakhstan'."

The mining sector has been rife with talk of consolidation, not least between Xstrata and Anglo American. But analysts were suggesting today that Xstrata, up 28p to 24.69, and BHP Billiton, 19.5p better at 10.32, may be interested in nickel producer LionOre. "This is the last remaining pure nickel play of significance," said Evolution Securities. "Any of the majors could be interested in this one - Xstrata, BHP or [Brazilian iron ore producer] CVRD in particular as these groups seek to gain a cartel-like grip on nickel."

Evo tipped European Nickel, up 1.75p to 56p, and Toledo Mining, up 1.5p to 150p, as other potential targets.

They've closed the spread to 3p, so hopefully we should now see some movement in SP. Expert, what do you mean by a clear technical run up.

Exerccise of share options by chairman Kyriakou may well be a positive signal as well as raising 500000 for the company?

50,000 purchase gone through and SP didn't even flicker. I bet MM's didn't like that purchase as I believe they have another large order to fill.