Part II
To: Richard Nisbet (who wrote...)
From: Burton Thursday, Apr 1 1999 8:27AM ET
I have no problem if you want to post your questions and these answers to the BPON forum, so that everyone knows the details.
Talk to Bioponic to verify anything I say.
#1: Yes. Taiwan is talking to Bioponic about recycling circuit board "sludge". It really doesn't matter about the metal source. Can be contaminated with oil or water as well. Anything with a good concentration of metal. The new site in Butte they're looking at backs into a mine with high Zinc concentrations. Feed the ore right into the machine.
#2: Perhaps. They're small-size plants, $4-5M each, from what I heard. They're currently using Zinc, then copper, then nickel. I haven't heard when they might do aluminum, but aluminum is recycled easily already.
#3: I think so, but you'd have to ask them. Aluminum is recycled easily. They're looking for the high-payback metals first.
#4: Water Treatment plants. Their ZSM comes out with water, and they need a dryer to remove the water. However, the Water Treatment company wants the ZSM in water, so they'll ship the product as is.
#5: Competitors are metal-specific. I thought I'd heard them mention Cominco for Zinc. See www3.techstocks.com for some more competitors. FYI, I'd thought I heard that Cominco called them last week, probably looking at MR3 to process oil- or water- contaminated Zinc sources.
#6: They want others to fund the plant, and they split the revenues. No up front costs for Bioponic. I personnally would like to see Bioponic keep all of the revenues. If they can get this first plan up and running they should be self-funding.
#7: They can make money at commodity pricing. Scrap Zinc $.25/lb. ZSM .25-30/lb. For every pound of Zinc, they can make 2.5 pounds of ZSM. In other words, put in $1, get out $2-$2.50, less overhead.
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