Victory's recent MD&A dated June 30, 2012, indicated they “Initiated a new metallurgical study to improve concentrate grade and quality”. See page 3. Hopefully they “improve concentrate grade” by getting better ore recoveries during milling operations.

For examplr, if ore recoveries increased from the 71.3%, as stated in the DFS, to 82.0%, the nickel in concentrate would increase from 11,000 tonne annually (24,25 million pounds) to 12,650 tonne annually (27,89 million pounds) Such an increase in ore recoveries could add 3.64 million pounds of nickel to annual production and help get Minago on the road to production.

I believe the past stated high percentages of nickel in concentrate are the result of removing non-nickel elements in the concentrate and were not the result of improving ore recoveries. I'm not complaining about the concentrate quality obtained as such, as it lowers the cost of shipping concentrate and lowers smelter fees. In its favor, a quality concentrate might allow for Outotec HydroNic process to be used which would eliminate both smelter and concentrate shipping costs.