Hello Mr. Russell:
Titanium to my knowledge does not occur naturally. It is a reactive metal, as is aluminum, both of which are recovered from ore. Ores are chemically reduced with heat to form titanium sponge, which then is either purified further or fabricated under heat (hot forged at bright red heat under protective atmosphere) into billets of the metal.
Titania (TiO2-titanium dioxide) is purified for white paint pigment. DuPont used to process it using titanium tetrachloride (a volatile form) as an intermediate to get it to sufficient purity for the titanium dioxide pigment market. With the large interests in titania and somewhat smaller titanium industry, if I were in their shoes and Altair had something, I would have evaluated it and become involved by now if it was worthwhile. That absence tells me the jig lacks merit.
SRIC studies are available to anyone who wants to pay premium dollars for an SRIC group to run the numbers. Some of their studies are helpful and meaningful to those in a particular chemical process industry. In most cases, their studies need to be 'adjusted' by proprietary information to make them more worthwhile to those in the business. And sometimes their studies are off the wall and get joked about, too. Generally, they are solid, but one should never take them carte blanche and expect to build a superior business from the study.
To me, the significance of the updated SRIC report is that the SRIC group doing the report is willing to be paid; and not some implication that Stanford is involved in the technology. If I recall, the SRIC reports have a disclaimer to that effect up front, although SRIC does seem to have some promotional quality to their offerings because of the Stanford cachet in their corporate name, as well as SRI's reputation.
Best regards,
m
BTW I am looking at ALTIF to short--I would like to see it a few points higher first--preferably 8 to 10 range. |
