I have been watching this one for quite a while: TITANIUM
Titanium to develop oil sands project with Syncrude
Titanium Corp Inc (C:TIC)
Shares Issued 55,650,651
Last Close 7/19/2006 $2.16
Wednesday July 19 2006 - News Release
Mr. Scott Nelson reports
TITANIUM CORPORATION SIGNS NEW AGREEMENT WITH SYNCRUDE
Titanium Corp. Inc. has signed a new two-party, two-year exclusivity agreement with Syncrude Canada Ltd. to facilitate further development of the company's oil sands project to recover titanium and zircon from oil sands tailings. The company is also pleased to announce that its 2006 pilot program is on schedule with the concentrator modules shipped from Australia on July 11, 2006, for arrival and assembly in Canada during August, 2006. The company plans to commission and operate the pilot concentrator on site in Fort McMurray during September and into October, 2006. In related work at the company's Regina pilot facility, work is progressing well on the design and testing of separation flow sheets to optimize the recovery of zircon.
The purpose of the 2006 program is to maximize the recovery and concentration of heavy minerals directly from the continuous flow oil sands tailings pipeline in Fort McMurray, Alta. Following Titanium's 2005 technical programs and subsequent analysis of material from the fresh tailings pipeline, process flow sheet design changes were incorporated in order to recover higher concentrations of heavy minerals and associated hydrocarbons. The heavy minerals will be recovered using modular units, which will simulate a full-sized continuous flow heavy minerals concentrator. The units were built in Australia, instead of on site in Fort McMurray, to realize significant cost savings. The concentrator will produce both titanium and zircon heavy mineral concentrates. Processed material from the concentrator will be sent to the company's Regina pilot plant to undergo further separation processing and analysis in late 2006.
In response to exceptionally strong zircon markets, Titanium recently announced its revised strategy to develop its zircon product first followed by an expansion phase to process and market titanium concentrates, which would be inventoried during the zircon production phase. Worldwide demand for zircon continues to outpace supply, driven mainly by demand from China. This strong demand, coupled with the depletion of existing production, has resulted in forecasts for continuing supply deficits for zircon. This strategy will enable the company to get into business sooner, with lower costs, followed by an expansion phase to realize additional value from the titanium concentrates.
© 2006 Canjex Publishing Ltd. |
