Silverado CEO Garry Anselmo
He then added: "Now at Nolan, [laughter] gold is an assay problem. Assays are based on representative samples. Sampling with gold is very difficult." Anselmo stated that a sample from a placer mine "could not be representative, you would not have accurate data," adding, "so in this case we've done our own work." The CEO also made reference to "other engineers" on the project, and "reports we've had written that have verified these findings," concluding, "That’s what we fall back on for our reserves at Nolan."
The company's annual report filed on March 15, 2002, states: "The proven and probable reserve calculations for the Company's mineral properties were determined by Mr. Edward J. Armstrong, Certified Professional Geologist. Mr. Armstrong is president of the Company's subsidiary, Silverado Green Fuel Inc."
Armstrong is also president of Tri-Con Mining Inc. and Tri-Con Mining (Alaska) Inc. Tri-Con is a privately owned corporation controlled by Anselmo – president, chairman, CEO and a director of Silverado.
(The Tri-Con Group comprises operations, exploration and development contractors that have been employed by Silverado under contract since 1972 to carry out all its fieldwork and to provide administrative and management services.)
Silverado's most recent 10Q filing states: "The Company is in arrears of required mineral claims and option payments for certain of its mineral properties at August 31, 2002, in the amount of $285,500 and therefore, the Company's rights to these properties with a carrying value of $315,000 may be adversely affected as a result of these non-payments."
A 'revolutionary new fuel'
Silverado is also strongly touting its "revolutionary new fuel process." The company entered the fuel sector in 2000, forming a New Fuel Technology Division," which operates out of Fairbanks, Alaska. Silverado has stated that it is the "top contender" for and "close to winning" a $9.7 million Department of Energy grant to demonstrate the commercial feasibility of the fuel.
In addition, the company's promotional materials have claimed variously that Silverado "controls this technology," that the process is "patented," and that Dr. Warrack Willson, who is now vice-president of Silverado’s Fuel Technology division, "holds the proprietary rights to the low-rank coal water fuel (LRCWF) process."
Ron Pierce, director of the University of Alaska's Clean Coal Project, a project also tasked with demonstrating the commercial feasibility of low-rank coal water fuel, scoffed at the idea that making the fuel was a "proprietary process."
Low-rank coal water fuel (LRCWF) is essentially a slurry of water and coal particles that can serve as a non-hazardous replacement for oil. And experts say the fuel is not "new"; there are two decades of research and symposia on record related to LRCWF, and research on low-rank fuels and coal-water fuels in general stretches back to the 1960s.
While experts say the process of making the fuel itself is not patented, there are patents in existence for enhancing certain characteristics of the fuel. A May 5, 2000 Silverado press release stated that Dr. W. Willson "co-holds a U.S. Patent (No. 4,337,142)" for the "Continuous Process for Conversion of Coal." While Willson is listed as one of five inventors of the patent, the document lists the assignee (the party that actually holds the patent and attendant rights) as "The United States of America as represented by the United States," adding that the invention arose out of work performed while under contract to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Willson is also listed as one of seven inventors for a patent described as "Methods to enhance the characteristics of hydro-thermally prepared slurry fuels." The assignee for that patent is the Energy & Environmental Research Center in Grand Forks, N.D. That work was funded in part by four Department of Energy cooperative agreements, and as such the patent states, "The U.S. Government may have certain rights in the invention."
Dr. Michael Jones, of the EERC, told WND that Silverado had not applied for nor inquired about a license for use of the patent. Jones is associate director of industrial relations and technology commercialization at the EERC, and adjunct assistant professor of physics at the University of North Dakota.
WND asked Anselmo about seeming discrepancies in the company's claims of controlling patents and of holding "proprietary rights" to the production of LRCWF, as compared to statements from government documents and scientific experts.
Anselmo answered: "He [Dr. Willson] has certain proprietary rights necessary to run the process." When asked, "And what rights are those?" the CEO replied, "The rights we do not put forth. He's published, uh, people can look at those, um, they're all published … we're not going to point people where to go."
What about Silverado's claims, in its promotional materials, that it is "close to winning” a $9.7 million DOE grant? The company applied for the federal funding under the Clean Coal Power Initiative, a program that is actually a co-operative agreement requiring cost-sharing and re-payment.
The Department of Energy has been reviewing these proposals now and announced the selections as this report was going to press.
Silverado was not awarded federal funding. The company's explanation for being turned down was that the $313 million in federal funding "went to major polluters to clean up." |
