ONTARIO Toronto-based URSA MAJOR MINERALS has temporarily suspended pre-production mining at its Shakespeare nickel project 70 km west of Sudbury. So far this year, Ursa Major had mined 90,000 tonnes of ore and shipped it to XSTRATA NICKEL's Strathcona mill for processing.
Richard Sutcliffe, URSA Major's president and CEO said in a news release, "The suspension is necessary to eliminate losses from pre-production operations. The pre-production program was a technical success that demonstrated URSA Major can mine and deliver ore of consistent quality and at a grade which is approximately 10% higher than our reserve model. Shakespeare is an open pit operation and we have an approximate 15,000 tonne stockpile of ore that is readily available on site that will allow for URSA Major to quickly restart operations once commodity prices improve."
The price of nickel has fallen more than 30% to below US$5.50/lb from over US$8.00/lb since mid-September 2008. The Shakespeare mine also has recoverable PGEs and precious metals.
Visit www.UrsaMajorMinerals.com for more details about the Shakespeare project and the feasibility study.
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