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Gold/Mining/Energy : Donner Minerals (DML.V) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: BLZBub who wrote (10257)	1/21/1999 12:36:00 PM
From: Buckey	Respond to of 11676

Maybe they borrowed the other half of the split core from Donner - LOL

To: BLZBub who wrote (10257)	1/22/1999 10:39:00 AM
From: VAUGHN	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11676

Hello BLZBub Thanks but don't like the two days of appreciation prior to the NR. Smells of insider manipulation and games I don't want to get caught up financing. This on the wire this A.M. Markets brace for writedown on prized Inco project By Paul Simao TORONTO, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Inco Ltd. could write off part or all of its C$4.3-billion Voisey's Bay nickel project next month when the Canadian mining giant unveils fourth-quarter results, analysts said on Thursday. Inco, the Western world's largest nickel producer, has been hard hit by growing doubts the stalled Voisey's Bay project, in the wilds of northern Labrador, Newfoundland, will ever see the light of day. Newfoundland, the poorest of Canada's 10 provinces, broke off negotiations with Inco last summer, refusing to issue a mining permit for the Voisey's Bay development until the Toronto-based nickel company agreed to build a C$1-billion smelter and refinery at Argentia, Nfld. The island province has steadfastly demanded that Inco process the high-grade Voisey's Bay ore at the former U.S. military base and appears content to have the project cobwebbed rather than see the raw nickel shipped outside the province. Inco maintains construction of a smelter at Argentia is not economically viable, but the company remains under pressure to take a whopping write-down on the prized project. "It is not a certainty, but I think there's a good chance they'll take a write-down (in the fourth quarter). The tricky part is the amount," said David Kellar, analyst at Griffiths McBurney & Partners of Toronto. "If they were to take a write-down of $1 billion or less, that would probably be negative for the stock and people will look at it and say 'That is not enough,'" said Kellar, who added that $1.5 billion was a figure markets expected. U.S.-based Moody's warned of an impending Voisey's Bay write-down two months ago after it downgraded Inco's debt and maintained a negative outlook on the troubled company's rating. The ratings agency also noted that Inco's recent sale of a 25-percent stake in subsidiary Voisey's Bay Nickel Co. to mining royalty firm Franco-Nevada's for C$50.4-million implied a "significantly lower" value for the project. When Inco won the rights to develop Voisey's Bay in 1996, besting rival Canadian miner Falconbridge Ltd., the nickel price was hovering around $3.75 a pound and was forecast to quickly hit $4.00 a pound. But the onset of the financial crisis in key Asian markets, oversupply of nickel out of Russia and the subsequent collapse of metal prices have caused some rather red faces in Inco's boardroom. Nickel traded at $1.97 a pound on Thursday on the London Metal Exchange. "The market has essentially written it (Voisey's Bay) down if not off. The project is going nowhere and virtually all the meaningful parameters that were assumed now look pretty silly," said Manford Mallory, analyst with Research Capital Corp. of Toronto. Mallory said if Newfoundland's negotiating position did not budge dramatically, Inco's project would be worth nothing. The chances that Newfoundland Premier Brian Tobin, a charismatic populist who earned the moniker "Captain Canada" during a highly-publicized 1995 confrontation with Spain over fishing rights, will throw Inco a lifeline are virtually nil. The tough-talking Tobin promised Newfoundlanders earlier this week that he would hold Inco's feet to the fire and never allow Voisey's Bay to haunt the province in the same way as the now infamous Upper Churchill Falls agreement of 1969. That deal, an ironclad contract to provide neighboring Quebec with hydroelectricity, failed to include an inflation adjuster. During the past 30 years, Newfoundland has pumped billions of dollars into the coffers of the French-speaking province's government-owned utility Hydro-Quebec. "Never again should a government of our province make long-term agreements based on short-term political considerations," Tobin pointedly said on Monday as he launched a bid for re-election in a provincial poll next month. Inco would not comment on Thursday on the possibility of an impending Voisey's Bay write-down, though the company has said in the past that it is aware of market speculation on the issue. The company will release its fourth-quarter results on February 10. Analysts predict a loss of about $0.20 a share. Inco lost $24 million, or $0.18 a share, in the third quarter of 1998, compared with a profit of $5 million, or a loss of C$0.02, in the same period of 1997. Inco shares rose C$0.90 to C$18.00, or 5.3 percent, in afternoon trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange. ($1=$1.52 Canadian) Regards