Big implications for sulphide ore mine costs and environmental concerns if widely applicable,...and I hear it is.
Ivanhoe Mines Ltd IVN
Shares issued 171,880,884 Apr 24 close $3.30
Thu 25 Apr 2002 News Release
Mr. Robert Friedland of Ivanhoe reports
AUSTRALIAN MINERALS PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY GROUP INTEC ...
Intec Ltd. has now closed its $5-million (Australian) initial public
offering oversubscribed and will proceed with the commercialization of its
proprietary minerals processing technology both in Australia and overseas.
Intec is issuing 25 million shares at 20 Australian cents each through its
IPO, which will give it a market capitalization of just under $30-million
(Australian) at the issue price. Its shares are currently expected to
commence trading on the Australian Stock Exchange on Thursday, May 2, 2002,
under the code INL.
Sydney University-based Intec has now emerged as the international leader
in the development of chloride hydrometallurgical technology and has
patented its unique process worldwide. This uses chloride/bromide leaching,
purification and electrowinning for the cost-effective and environmentally
responsible recovery of base and associated precious metals from sulphide
orebodies.
The Intec process incurs much lower capital and operating costs than
alternative technologies, while also reducing the heavy environmental
impacts associated with conventional smelters.
Ivanhoe Mines, which is majority owned by its chairman Robert Friedland,
has emerged as the cornerstone investor in the Intec IPO. Together with
Wilson Asset Management, it joins with CIBC Australia Limited and Eureka
Capital Partners Ltd. as Intec's leading corporate shareholders Ivanhoe is
an international mining company currently developing an important new
porphyry gold and copper discovery at its Turquoise Hill project in
Mongolia. Ivanhoe produces copper from the S&K joint venture in Myanmar,
iron ore products from ABM Mining's Savage River mine in Tasmania and gold
from the Eunsan mine in South Korea and the Bakyrchik mine in Kazakstan.
In addition to taking a large position in the Intec IPO, Ivanhoe will be
licensed on commercial terms to support the development and use of the
Intec process in relation to its various base and precious metals projects
Other Intec shareholders and/or licensees already include Anglo American,
BHP Billiton, Nippon Mining and Rio Tinto.
Managing director and chief executive officer of Intec, Philip Wood, said:
"Following the successful conclusion of Intec's IPO and the listing of its
shares on the ASX, we will accelerate our targeted worldwide marketing of
the Intec process, for which there is significant pent-up industry demand,
and complete our specific project feasibility studies, leading to the full
commercial application of our technology. In this regard, we now
particularly welcome the involvement of the dynamic and diversified Ivanhoe
Mines."
Both the Queensland government (through a $100,000 (Australian) grant under
its Regional Business Development scheme) and Thiess Pty. Ltd. (through the
voluntary supply of its technical personnel and other engineering
resources) have joined Intec's feasibility study for an initial 25,000
tonnes of copper per year plant in Queensland. They enter as project
partners with the federal government (Invest Australia), Selwyn Mines
Limited (regional copper concentrates producer), HG Engineering (design
engineer), ABB Industry Pty. Ltd. (electrical and process control supplier)
and Westpac Institutional Bank (project financial adviser).
Mr. Wood added: "We have also commenced a feasibility study for a plant to
operate in British Columbia, where base metals producers must bear heavy
transportation costs, as well as high smelting and refining charges
overseas. Generally speaking, both the western hemisphere and Asian markets
are especially exciting to Intec, as miners face the need for a quantum
reduction in their production costs due to systemically lower metals
prices, despite increasingly stringent environmental regulations. The Intec
process addresses both of these issues better than any other known
technology."
The current value of the world base and precious metals concentrates
processing industry is about $7-billion (U.S.). Originally developed for
production of copper, the Intec process has evolved also to treat zinc,
lead and nickel concentrates and their associated byproducts and is now
poised to extract all saleable metals from polymetallic concentrates.
Mr. Wood concluded: "As an ASX-listed entity, Intec offers Australian and
international investors the opportunity to participate in the exciting
future of the locally developed but worldwide patented Intec process. Our
technology has the potential to radically change and improve the world's
base metals industries by enabling pure base and precious metals to be
transported directly to markets from mine sites, rather than sending bulk
concentrates to distant 'smokestack' smelters.
"In fact, the Intec process produces no liquid effluents or noxious gaseous
emissions, while the solids residue following processing treatment is
stable and readily capable of disposal in a managed landfill or tailings
site. The Intec process also consumes significantly less energy and
therefore is responsible for reduced greenhouse gas emissions, relative to
any other hydrometallurgical processes," he concluded. |
