Some results.....
NEWS RELEASE TRANSMITTED BY CANADIAN CORPORATE NEWS
FOR: LITHOS CORPORATION
ME SYMBOL: LTS
FEBRUARY 23, 1999
Lithos Corporation - Financial Results
MONTREAL, QUEBEC--Lithos Corporation announces its results for the
year ended July 31st 1998 as well as for the first quarter ended
October 31st 1998.
/T/
1 For the year ended July 31st 1998, the extraordinary operating
losses related to the weakness of the gold market reached
$20,696,063 of which $20,129,547 is attributable to the
devaluation of the gold properties held by Lithos which
translates into a loss of $0.67 per share, comparatively to a
loss of $0.14 per share for the preceding year.
2 The devaluation of the gold assets and the losses accumulated of
approximately $27,000,000 should however allow to cancel in part
the income tax payable on future profits made from the sale of
lithium carbonate of high purity. This recovery represents,
considering an income tax rate of 38 percent, an approximative
value of $10,000,000.
Moreover, Lithos Corporation has, notwithstanding the austerity
of the gold market, conserved all of its gold assets and taken
a strategic orientation allowing Lithos to initiate the high
technology industrial turn sought by its shareholders.
3 It is of importance to note that the lithium carbonate of its
subsidiary Limtech is, at 99.999 percent, the purest in the
world and that the company produces it at a more than
competitive price. Furthermore, the market for high purity
lithium carbonate is growing on a worldwide scale with an
increase in demand of more than 21.5 percent per year for the
next 10 years according to a study prepared by the Kline Group
in July of 1998.
4 On the other hand, a rigorous administrative management has
allowed more particularly the following:
4.1 The reduction of the general and administrative expenses by
73 percent at the end of the year 1998.
4.2 A net improvement of the treasury at the end of the first
quarter going from a negative situation to a positive one
with more than $292,000 in cash as of October 31st, 1998.
4.3 The conservation of all the gold properties of the company
will position the company once the gold market recovers.
4.4 Investments of $250,000 per month principally at the
"Centre de recherche d'HYDRO-QUEBEC" (LTEE) through
Limtech, a subsidiary of Lithos, which has allowed the
construction of a pilot plant producing annually more than
40 tonnes of lithium carbonate of high purity.
/T/
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