Question

NARRBEGIN: SA_118_122
Southport Mining Corporation is considering a new mining venture in Indonesia. There are two uncertainties associated with this prospect; the metallurgical properties of the ore and the net price (market price minus mining and transportation costs) of the ore in the future.
The metallurgical properties of the ore would be classified as either "high grade" or "low grade". Southport's geologists have estimated that there is a 70% chance that the ore will be "high grade", and otherwise, it will be "low grade". Depending on the net price, both ore classifications could be commercially successful.
The anticipated net prices depended on market conditions, and also on the metallurgical properties of the ore. Southport's economists have simplified the continuous distribution of possible prices into a two-outcome discrete distribution ("high" or "low" net price) for the investment analysis. The probabilities of these net prices, and the associated outcomes (in millions of dollars), are summarized below.

High Grade metallurgy (p=0.7)Low Grade metallurgy (p=0.3)
PricesProbabilityOutcomeProbabilityOutcome
High0.8$400.6$20
Low0.2-$200.4-$40
NARREND
Suppose that Southport could consider another alternative - postponing the go/no-go decision on the new venture and drilling for a core sample of the ore to determine with complete certainty its metallurgical property. How much should Southport be willing to pay for the core sample?

Answer

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