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Gold/Mining/Energy : Int'l Pursuit (T.IPJ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ron Everest who wrote (404)	10/29/1997 12:34:00 AM
From: Bear	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 835

The grab samples in the press release averaged just .15 gpt au. This is subeconomic. The samples from Pursuit's Mongolian properties had much higher, very economic grades. Interest in Pusuit has waned because of the crash in gold and copper and the lack of news. For Pursuit to really make it, metal prices have to turn around. In this connection, things look pretty dismal right now, but eventually will get better. But who knows when or how much worse things will get first? Bear

To: Ron Everest who wrote (404)	11/1/1997 5:56:00 PM
From: RonS	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 835

Ron, Maybe the lack of Russian output will make the price of copper go up (see attached news article) Regards RonS Friday October 31 12:40 PM EST FOCUS-Changes afoot at Russia Norilsk Nickel plant By Mike Collett-White MOSCOW, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Russian mining group Norilsk Nickel (NKEL.RTS) is launching a major reconstruction programme next year which it hopes will drag the huge base and precious metals producer into the 21st Century. Parts of two major nickel units at the group's mining and metallurgical combine in the remote Arctic town of Norilsk are due for refurbishments lasting six months, hitting production at those plants. But whether the losses can be made up elsewhere in the group's sprawling operations remains unclear. Officials remain as tightlipped as ever about output, exports and stocks of metals at the key supplier to Western markets. In an interview with a local newpaper, a copy of which was sent to Reuters by the Norilsk group's Moscow headquarters, combine director Dzhonson Khagazheyev said the Nadezhdinsky and Nickel nickel units and the copper plant would be refurbished. ''We will start reconstruction (of the Nadezhdinsky unit) at the beginning of December, and plan to complete it in six months,'' he told the Zapolyarny Vestnik. ''We plan to rebuild another ore heating oven at the Nickel plant, which will take six months. Also lying ahead is rebuilding the smelting foundry of the copper plant. That is what we envisage for reconstruction in 1998,'' he said. Only the Nadezhdinsky plant reconstruction had previously been announced, with Prime-Tass news agency reporting that the work would cut the unit's output by half for five to six months. Norilsk group spokesman Igor Plotnikov declined to comment on output losses at the other two units next year, saying only, ''There will not be a big increase in output any time soon. Reconstruction must bring with it a rise in production capacity, but to earn 10 roubles you have to spend one.'' Khagazheyev went as far as to say that the modernisation would make life difficult for the group next year. ''According to our estimates, it will be a difficult enough period for the company, due to reconstruction work on basic production, which will last practically the whole of 1998.'' ''If we do not succeed in maintaining levels of production that we have attained by using reserves or reducing production losses, then I think that after the refurbishment we will make up for the losses,'' he said. RAO Norilsky Nikel's nickel supplies are key to world markets. The group exports the bulk of its output, which accounts for roughly one fifth of the world total. Last year the Nickel plant (Nikelevy Zavod in Russian) produced 60,000 tonnes of nickel, the Nadezhdinsky plant 76,000 tonnes, and the Pechenga plant close to Norway 42,000 tonnes, Western analysts have said. Nadezhdinsky also produces copper. Plotnikov said the board of directors was working on a new medium-term development programme for the group, which is controlled by the powerful Uneximbank banking conglomerate. This would replace a previous project envisaging, among other things, a 20 percent rise in nickel production this year to 213,000 tonnes from last year's 177,185 tonnes. If achieved, Norilsk would become the world's number one producer of nickel, leapfrogging Canada's Inco Ltd (N.TO). Analysts were doubtful the targets could be hit, considering ageing infrastructure and inefficiency at the main combine. But Norilsk surprised the West by pushing through a 13 percent rise in nickel output during the first half of the year over the same 1996 period. No tonnages were provided. As well as supplying a major slice of the world's nickel, Norilsk is an important supplier of copper, minor metal cobalt, and precious metals platinum and palladium. Under Uneximbank management, the group concentrated on paring huge arrears to the state and to regional budgets in 1997. Next year the group wants to turn its attention to investing in future production. Plotnikov said the number of workers at the main combine had fallen to 104,000 from 126,000, but no redundancies were made. However, no new places would be created in order to bring the workforce down to more manageable levels, he said.