News

December 04, 2008

Albidon Has Some Tough Decisions To Make In The Face Of The Horror Of $4 Nickel

By Our Man in Oz

“We’ve got a good asset, and we intend to preserve it.” Fighting words from Paul Chapman, one of the new men in charge at Albidon, the Australian-based nickel miner doing it tough in Zambia. Chapman took a share of the reins earlier this week after the sudden exit of the chief executive Dale Rogers. The change was so swift that Albidon decided to split the top job between Chapman and fellow director, Alasdair Cooke, while a looking for a new chief executive. More changes will be rung in next week, when Albidon will spell out precisely what it needs to do to survive the chilly blast of a nickel price which has crashed by 72 per cent from US$15 a pound 10 months ago to around US$4.10 today, a price which is hurting all nickel miners, but especially those finalising construction and production ramp ups like Albidon.

“We certainly made a few mistakes, but the real damage has been caused by the collapse in the nickel price,” Chapman said over coffee near his office in West Perth, coffee for which Minesite decided to pay as a light-hearted gesture of goodwill to help Albidon preserve its cash. Paying for Chapman’s cappuccino also serves as recognition that Chapman has gone above and beyond his duties in finding time to talk about how hard times are in the nickel business, and in not sparing us any of the grim...