Press releases - News & Current Events: December 10, 2005
Tri-Valley Corporation
5555 Business Park South, Suite 200, Bakersfield, CA 93309
AMEX “TIV”
Tri-Valley's Select Resources Corporation Subsidiary Signs Major Joint Venture With Trans-Western Materials
myturl.com
Tri-Valley Corporation’s (AMEX TIV) new mining subsidiary, Select Resources Corporation, has signed its first major deal, an industrial minerals joint venture with Trans-Western Materials LLC of San Diego, California, it was announced today by F. Lynn Blystone, chief executive officer of both Tri-Valley and Select. The joint venture is 50-50 and Select will be the operator.
The initial phase will be to re-open the Monarch Mine in eastern Kern County, California to supply central and southern California customers with very high grade calcium carbonate (CaCO3) in the range of 97% to 99% CaCO3 with a whiteness grade of plus 96% Hunter and GE brightness. Approximately 15 million tons of these grades are immediately available.
On a much larger scale, the JV, to be named Alpha Minerals and Chemicals, LLC, has rights to an estimated 400 million tons of high grade CaCO3 from surface to an as yet undetermined depth. With its proposed base load customer, Alpha expects to enter the business as the third largest producer in California and seventh largest in the nation.
Listed as an essential product for the manufacturing base by the State of California, high grade CaCO3 is used in some 1,200 different products in such industrial applications as stainless steel, paint and glass making, agricultural uses and human uses range from cosmetics to antacids.
In California, the world’s fifth largest economy, the demand for high grade CaCO3 is growing at an approximate rate of 7% and both the commodity and competition is limited.
“Our shareholders are more familiar with oil and gas terms so we’re comparing this on a volumetric basis that Tri-Valley estimates it has acquired half the equivalent of a potential 800 million barrel oilfield with price per ton values roughly equivalent to $25 to $50 barrel oil,” Blystone said.
Dr. Henry J. “Rick” Sandri, executive vice president of Select Resources and an industrial minerals expert, will be the executive director in charge of the joint venture. He will be joined by the president and vice president of Trans-Western, Marshall Pettit and Wayne Everett, as managing director and senior director of mining and milling operations respectively as the initial operating staff.
Directors of Alpha will be Blystone as chairman, Dr. Sandri, Dr. Harold J. Noyes, a director of Tri-Valley and president of Select, Pettit, Everett and Peter Tarnoff, a director of Trans-Western. Thomas J. Cunningham, chief financial officer of Tri-Valley and Select, will also handle those duties for Alpha. All these enterprises will be operated in the same manner as Tri-Valley Corporation, which is a full reporting public company listed on the American Stock Exchange under the symbol “TIV.”
Tri-Valley, through Select Resources, will fund up to $2.5 million in loans to establish Alpha operations while Trans-Western is providing mineral rights, customer letters of intent, permits, facilities and equipment contacts, and the organization to date.
“We expect this operating venture to rapidly add cash flow and share value to all participating entities. This is an important component of business for Select Resources, which will soon have additional important plant and equipment assets plus precious metal and industrial mineral properties toward launching it as a stand-alone mining company. Select will also operate Tri-Valley’s 42-square mile gold exploration project at Richardson, Alaska,” Blystone said.
The Company is in its 42nd year of business as a successful operating company and for 32 years has been a full reporting 12 (g) publicly traded Delaware Corporation. Tri-Valley Corporation stock is publicly traded on the American Stock Exchange under the symbol “TIV” in the United States and is also traded in Europe on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol “TVC WKN 911919.” Our company websites, which include all SEC filings, are www.tri-valleycorp.com and www.tri-valley.de .
Contact: F. Lynn Blystone,
President & Chief Executive Officer
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results, events and performance could vary materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements which includes such words and phrases as exploratory, wildcat, prospect, speculates, unproved, prospective, very large, expect, potential, etc. Among the factors that could cause actual results, events and performance to differ materially are risks and uncertainties discussed in the company’s quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2004, and the annual report on Form 10 K for the year ended December 31, 2003.
|
