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"Hello, I’m Ian Plimer. I’m the Professor of Mining Geology at the University of Adelaide.
"In previous lives I’ve worked underground, I’ve worked in exploration. I’ve worked on gold, I’ve worked on base metals, I’ve worked on all continents.
"The aim of these segments, is to give you, the investor, a few tips about investing in Australia’s mining industry.
"Every year, planet earth gets bombarded by 40,000 tonnes of extra-terrestrial dust," Professor Plimer says.
"Every year we have meteorites hit planet Earth, and about 5 per cent of those meteorites are rich in nickel.
"And it was in the medieval times when the Vikings traded these meteorites with the Arabs for silver.
"The Arabs wanted this nickel-iron alloy and they wanted it because it made very, very hard steel.
"Now nothing has much changed, we still use nickel in super alloys, we still use nickel in stainless steel. So as soon as there is industrial growth, we use nickel, and that is exactly what is happening today.
"Nickel is quite an unusual element. There is a lot of nickel on planet Earth, but it’s very deep down, and to get it up to the surface, we need some extraordinary geological processes. And when molten rocks come up towards the surface, if we have a lot of sulphur in those rocks, well get nickel sulphides.
"And to mine those deposits we need to get underground, to rocks that are quite often unstable, quite often are hydrated, quite often have talc, and quite often fall in on you.
"Those mines can have enormous dilution, so that’s an investor tip. We need to know, what is the dilution? We need to know is there much talc in that nickel? We then need to know if we crush and grind these rocks, does the talc give us a problem? We need to know what this nickel concentrate has in it? If it’s got 2 per cent nickel, it’s hard to sell. If it’s got 15 per cent nickel it’s easy to sell, hence we can mine in very isolated areas.
"There are other rocks that come from deep in the Earth that are rich in nickel, but not nickel sulphide. And when these are exposed to very long periods of weathering, we leach out almost everything except nickel and except iron.
"And this concentrates in the soils. And these we call nickel laterite deposits and theses deposits always give us problems. It is because each deposit has slightly different minerals in it. Each deposit varies within the deposit.
"And so there have been many nickel laterite deposits that have really come to grief because it’s been very hard to take out the nickel and associated cobalt in an efficient mechanism.
"So a tip for the investor, lateritic nickel deposits can be dangerous. Other lateritic nickel deposits have the minerals and the shape that make them worthwhile mining.
"So the next time you are using cutlery that is made out of stainless steel, you can think that that nickel maybe comes from Finland, or Australia, and that nickel is alloyed with chromium that comes form South Africa or maybe Albania. Nickel underpins the industrial world’s growth.
"So if you want to invest in the growth of china, nickel is one of those metals."
"In previous lives I’ve worked underground, I’ve worked in exploration. I’ve worked on gold, I’ve worked on base metals, I’ve worked on all continents.
"The aim of these segments, is to give you, the investor, a few tips about investing in Australia’s mining industry.
"Every year, planet earth gets bombarded by 40,000 tonnes of extra-terrestrial dust," Professor Plimer says.
"Every year we have meteorites hit planet Earth, and about 5 per cent of those meteorites are rich in nickel.
"And it was in the medieval times when the Vikings traded these meteorites with the Arabs for silver.
"The Arabs wanted this nickel-iron alloy and they wanted it because it made very, very hard steel.
"Now nothing has much changed, we still use nickel in super alloys, we still use nickel in stainless steel. So as soon as there is industrial growth, we use nickel, and that is exactly what is happening today.
"Nickel is quite an unusual element. There is a lot of nickel on planet Earth, but it’s very deep down, and to get it up to the surface, we need some extraordinary geological processes. And when molten rocks come up towards the surface, if we have a lot of sulphur in those rocks, well get nickel sulphides.
"And to mine those deposits we need to get underground, to rocks that are quite often unstable, quite often are hydrated, quite often have talc, and quite often fall in on you.
"Those mines can have enormous dilution, so that’s an investor tip. We need to know, what is the dilution? We need to know is there much talc in that nickel? We then need to know if we crush and grind these rocks, does the talc give us a problem? We need to know what this nickel concentrate has in it? If it’s got 2 per cent nickel, it’s hard to sell. If it’s got 15 per cent nickel it’s easy to sell, hence we can mine in very isolated areas.
"There are other rocks that come from deep in the Earth that are rich in nickel, but not nickel sulphide. And when these are exposed to very long periods of weathering, we leach out almost everything except nickel and except iron.
"And this concentrates in the soils. And these we call nickel laterite deposits and theses deposits always give us problems. It is because each deposit has slightly different minerals in it. Each deposit varies within the deposit.
"And so there have been many nickel laterite deposits that have really come to grief because it’s been very hard to take out the nickel and associated cobalt in an efficient mechanism.
"So a tip for the investor, lateritic nickel deposits can be dangerous. Other lateritic nickel deposits have the minerals and the shape that make them worthwhile mining.
"So the next time you are using cutlery that is made out of stainless steel, you can think that that nickel maybe comes from Finland, or Australia, and that nickel is alloyed with chromium that comes form South Africa or maybe Albania. Nickel underpins the industrial world’s growth.
"So if you want to invest in the growth of china, nickel is one of those metals."
