The main problem of deflation is reserve bank cannot cut anymore...

The main problem of deflation is reserve bank cannot cut anymore interest rate due to various factors eg (household massive gearing, some countries already at 0% rate). Further, people will hold on to their money and stop spending or not buying any asset (including shares) ie the longer you don't buy, the cheaper goods get.

Once people stop spending this will hurt China, USA, Europe, UK and Australian economies. This will also affect consumable metals like Ni and Zn. However, zinc been fewer producers especially Mt Isa Century mine closing soon may be ok. High cost Ni producers will suffer.

In Europe, Germany's biggest export of BMW & Mercedes is China. With lower Chinese currency and less purchasing power this will hurt Europe zoom and debt-laden countries like PIIGS will continue to suffer. But Germany will NOT let PIIGS go out of EU because Germans want to hold Euro currency low for their own exports. PIIGS countries without their own currency to de-value (due to weak economy) will have no economy left to grow and continue to struggle.

This is currency war, race to the bottom... similar to iron ore. As for Australia, you cannot rely on lower dollars because everyone got low currency. You need to be innovative, creative and produce goods at lower prices. But Australian invest very little in venture capitals (24X less than USA per capital).

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-11/the-great-venture-capital-drought/6689520

As for MCR, they should be aggressively cut back on explorations, salaries and mining. This issue can go on for many years to come. Conserve cash & look for cheap, quality assets to buy for the future.

Just IMHO