I thought this needed to be posted again
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Gold Fields to Support Research Into New Industrial Uses for Gold
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, April 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Gold Fields Limited (Nasdaq: GOLD; JSE: GFI) and Mintek today announced the entry of Gold Fields into Project AuTEK, a pioneering initiative to pursue research into and the development of new industrial uses for gold.
Chris Thompson, Chairman and Chief Executive of Gold Fields said; ``Gold producers have in the past not spent enough time and money on developing new product applications for gold. Through this project we aim to explore the potential for gold and gold alloys to be used in catalytic and other new applications. We believe there is substantial potential for gold to replace existing products and to create new ones.
Project AuTEK is a very exciting and significant step for the future of the gold market,'' Thompson said.
Project AuTEK, which was first launched in June 2000, now has Gold Fields, AngloGold, and Mintek as primary partners. The project has research affiliations with a number of institutions worldwide, including the Universities of Cape Town, Witwatersrand and the North in South Africa, as well as the LERCSI in France and the University of Leiden in The Netherlands.
Dr Mike Cortie, manager of the Physical Metallurgy Division of Mintek said; ``The entry of Gold Fields into the partnership will allow AuTEK to expand its focus from research into the use of gold in catalysts for the chemical industry, to include other applications such as the use of gold in advanced materials and devices.''
He added; ``Gold has diverse useful and interesting technological properties. However, it has only been discovered comparatively recently that it has great potency as a catalyst for many chemical reactions of commercial and environmental interest. This breakthrough in understanding occurred more or less simultaneously at laboratories in Japan and Western Europe. Research into gold-bearing catalysts is now an active topic in Europe, Japan, the USA, China and South Africa. The first 12 months of Project AuTEK has focused on these applications. However, we have been aware all along that gold has other actual and potential applications in advanced devices and components and, with the support from Gold Fields, Project AuTEK will be additionally directed at these new opportunities. Of particular interest to us, and our partners at the universities of the Witwatersrand and the North, is that gold has actual or potential uses in the growing field of nanotechnology and in certain kinds of advanced materials and devices. While these types of devices might only use a few hundred milligrams of gold a piece, their potential market runs to tens of millions of units and they could end up being a significant consumer of gold.
SOURCE: Gold Fields Limited; Mintek |
