Osr1986,A good question but the answer to it is not simple....

Osr1986,
A good question but the answer to it is not simple. There may be other readers who may assist in answering it.

The article in the ResourceStocks http://www.resourcestocks.com.au/profiles/archive/2009/May-June/startDownload.asp?File=Augur_Resources.pdf&Size=1387338 discusses the company and AUK's resources, including their nickel deposit. The article implies that the resource is "one of the richest nickel laterite deposits on the east coast", whatever that means. It is only the depressed price of nickel that caused turning management attention to other drilling targets. It would be very costly to continue drilling this deposit in the current economic climate. The fact that a JORC compliant statement was issued for this deposit, in itself, implies that the deposit is considered economical. In order to establish how economical it is, the company would need to do much more drilling and fund a feasibility study. The anomaly is much larger than the drilled area, so the JORC resource is likely to grow significantly with more drilling. Its location is close to infrastructure, which is good, too.

My research on the internet http://www.theallineed.com/chemistry/06081812.htm indicates that the economics of laterite nickel deposits depends very strongly on the tonnage.

I hope it helps.

Regards,
Dratoz