Anyone who said gold was valuable didn’t understand the value of nickel. Nickel-containing materials play a major role in our everyday lives from stainless steel food preparation equipment to the core of the workings of atomic power generators. The list of applications essential for our everyday lives is inexhaustive. Compared with most other materials nickel offers better corrosion resistance, better toughness, better heat strength at high and low temperatures and a range of special magnetic and electronic properties that have made this metal essential in virtually every industry we rely on.

WRITTEN BY DON CAMPBELL

THE NICKEL RUSH

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INSPIRATION MINING

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At the time of his first involvement in 1996, Inspiration only held a west coast modest sulphide base metal property. Randy reveals that his own background

has less to do with the intricacies of mining and more to do with sufficiently financing such projects to allow them to successively complete their exploration phase. The success of a company is most usually determined by whether it can obtain the necessary financing to survive to the point when the potential for large financial returns occur.

“My background is actually in the stock market when I was employed from 1987 - 1995,” he reveals, “The Canadian market continues to be very resource driven so as brokers we worked with mining companies where I garnered a great deal of experience working in this field.” . Eventually in 1996 Randy Miller left the brokerage business and financed Inspiration Mining leading to its financial focus. A major part of that focus was to assemble a team of highly skilled legal, accounting and management persons and relationships to propel Inspiration into significant natural resource prospects.

By 2004, through his leadership and industry contacts, the company succeeded in completing a reverse merger under which Inspiration acquired 100% ownership of Metal Mines, a private company that held the rights to a major Nickel property in the world renowned Canadian “Nickel Belt”. This was a major event and led to Inspirations refocus on the Nickel market to answer the rising demand in the world markets. Within the next 24 to 36 months, continuing under his leadership, he and his team succeeded in

TIMMINS | OTTAWA | THUNDER BAY

INSPIRATION MINING

Inspiration Mining is the aptly named mining company headed up by Mr. Randy Miller. The company was originally created as a “junior mining” company. For those not familiar with the industry, Randy explains “a junior mining company specializes in exploring for and proving up deposits of sufficient size to warrant the huge expense of opening a mine. When such a deposit is located and reliably defined, it is then either sold to or otherwise mined in conjunction with senior mining companies, whose management infrastructures and expertise are different than that required in the junior mining sector.

closing other private equity financings to bring in excess of $50 Million CAD working capital to the company.

In addition to having allowed Inspiration to complete major exploration on its Langmuir nickel property, Mr. Miller explained, “Inspiration has financed other projects brought to it by other companies which simply did not themselves have the capability of attracting sufficient financing to complete their projects.” Thus, Inspiration has investments in other mineral properties as well as other companies within itself. This has resulted in a portfolio of mining properties at a number of different development stages.”

ExperienceIn this game experience is crucial and that is what makes

Inspiration Mining the force it is. All of Inspiration’s personnel and professional relationships are seasoned professionals including Randy Miller himself who has been involved with securities for over a quarter of a century, “We also have some of the best security lawyers, corporate accountants, professionals in the prospecting fields, drillers, and geology experts as well,” he adds.

“In 2004 we acquired Timmins (Langmuir) Property which was one of the most promising developments at the time,” Randy tells us, “We spent $23 million (CAD) and drilled over 350 holes only to have the market fall out in 2007-08. When the value of the Nickel commodity dropped from $25 to $4 a pound, it made little sense going forward into production.”

Planning ahead and maintaining a long term strategy has always been one of the key aspects to facilitating growth and prosperity within the mining industry. Instead of being spooked by the drop Randy and his colleagues took a look at the overall situation and decided to take a longer view. Rather than being pushed into production which would have been unprofitable, they decided to wait for the cycle to come back into their favour.

The Nickel MarketTo comprehend the Nickel market, it’s necessary to understand

that nickel ore occurs in two forms, relating to the chemical state in which they occur. One form is laterite Nickel, which is more abundant but difficult and expensive to refine into a usable form. The other form is sulphide nickel, which is far less abundant but far easier and inexpensive to refine. Sulphide nickel deposits are generally the source of the highest grade and most sought after deposits. All of the Inspiration’s deposits on The Langmuir properties are sulphide deposits.

INSPIRATION MINING

Worldwide, Indonesia and Russia are responsible for the production of almost 50% of the (sulphide) nickel supply. In Indonesia the wealth of the deposits were supposedly being protected under agreements with foreign importers specifying that refineries would be built within the exporters regions. Contrary to this contractual provision, ever since the 70’s Indonesia has been exporting its core product to foreign refineries. Recently the government has outright stopped the export of all unrefined products. This means that the raw material is now just sitting in Indonesia since Indonesia, at this time, does not have the necessary refining capacity. Until those are built, the unrefined metal from Indonesia’s mining capacity is off the world market.

“Two factors have added to the situation,” Randy comments, “One is that even if Indonesia started building smelters these are massive undertakings that takes years to create and turn on, and two, most nickel from Indonesia is based on laterite which is far more expensive to refine. This is due to high energy costs required to turn it into a finished product. For laterite Nickel to be economic it needs a price of $12-$15.”

With a similar thing happening in Russia due to the politics engulfing that region, the worldwide demand for Nickel is dramatically climbing and leaves Inspiration Mining in an enviable position.

The Langmuir Nickel PropertiesWith regard to Inspiration’s Langmuir Properties themselves, the

area was historically a Noranda/Inco joint venture, which first mined nickel in the region. The property then was acquired by Timmins Nickel, an independent company consisting of former Noranda/Inco local management. Timmins Nickel then completed the ramp leading down to the ore body on Langmuir One during the early 1990s. However, within a few years, the market slipped into a new depression and Timmins Nickel went bankrupt.

As a result of the bankruptcy, the mineral claims in the entire area were terminated and became eligible for re-staking by members of the public. In 1996 the area was part of an old staking rush scene, “In the morning of the date a hundred and twenty people turned up to lay stakes to the claims. It was like in the old days when people were running to the best deposits,” he recalls, “Ironically Noranda thought nobody was going to be there and so they arrived nearer to 8 am only to find everything was gone.” We then acquired what is now the Langmuir Properties from the group that had re-staked the area.

Although the Langmuir Properties in Timmins cover over 11 square km and have a number of zones of nickel mineralization, Inspiration Mining most advanced exploration has centered on just two of these, referred to as the Langmuir one deposit and the Langmuir North zone.

“Logistics in mining is important for efficiency. From the history

of past mining activity, we know that a body of higher grade ore lies somewhat deeper on the Langmuir One Deposit. Past mining activity occurring at that site was being accessed through a ramp. That ramp, which still exists was put in place by Noranda reaches down to a high grade ore running over 2%+ Nickel. Timmins Nickel, when they took over, further extended the ramp and went on to mine over 100k tonnes of 1.74 % Nickel in the early nineties, “So we knew that The Langmuir One had a great deal to offer.”

The ramp, which has become filled with water, simply needs to be dewatered and refurbished to be usable today.

“Under applicable exploration regulations we are allowed to take three 20, 000 tonne samples which would realize a $15 -20 million profit after costs.”

“Very important, there is a mill nearby,” Randy points out, “that sits six kilometres from our deposit. The mill is currently under care and maintenance and not operating, but the owner is anxious to do custom milling. Our plan going forward is to run our bulk samples through the mill and sell the concentrate.”

Speaking about Langmuir One and Langmuir North deposits on which the most advanced exploration has occurred to date, “We drilled

INSPIRATION MINING

most of it for an open pit

scenario on The Langmuir One

deposit drilling extended 450m

vertical hitting the same quality

of ore. Frankly we are not sure

how deep it goes.”

He explains further that the

nickel deposits here are stringer

deposits and could go down to

depths of up to 3000 metres

revealing the scale of the deposit

at Langmuir One.

Other ProjectsWithin the mining industry

there are many opportunities

for diversification, particularly

during economic periods when

financing does not come easily.

Randy was keen to tell us about

the new Chilean Potash Project which Inspiration owns fifty percent. “This project lies in the Atacama Desert which is the driest place on earth.” he explains, “Since evaporation is a major financial factor in producing high grade Potassium, that arid climate is a huge positive”. An additional positive is that the project lies in close proximity to the coast line, providing an economic means for shipping.

Potassium, in the form of Potash fertilizer, is a commodity with substantial and grown demand in the world market. At this point they are in discussions with investment bankers to spin it out as an IPO into its own

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company. Given all of the surrounding circumstances, a valuation of over $400 million dollars is possible. Currently the parties are targeting this to be underway within the next 12 months, “This will be an opportunity to take advantage of potash and potassium reserves and we’re looking at this as an investment because our primary focus is still on nickel.”

Focussing On Cores At the core of Inspiration is the basic exploration and finance

within the Junior Mining Public market. It is keeping within their wheel house of experience that has allowed this small team of professionals to achieve the resounding successes that have paved the way for their future.

“Nickel is in high demand and analysts believe the price will only be driven higher. We are in a good time in the market to bring this project to fruition,” Randy believes.

“We are definitely excited about the future,” Randy concludes.