NEWS RELEASE
May 19, 1999 Working Capital: $0.9 million
Symbol AVL:VSE Shares Outstanding 20,061,731
SEC 12g3-2(b) No. 82-4427
SEPARATION RAPIDS PROJECT PRE-FEASIBILITY STUDY NEARING COMPLETION
EXPLORATION FOR TANTALUM AND CESIUM ZONES RESUMES
Avalon Ventures Ltd. (the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on
activities on the Separation Rapids rare metals project, Kenora, Ontario.
Over the past five months, efforts have been mainly focused on the
preparation of a pre-feasibility study on the Big Whopper petalite deposit
which is now nearing completion. During this period the Company has also
initiated a direct marketing program for both the petalite and feldspar
mineral products to end-users in the glass and ceramics industries. A
number of glass and ceramics manufacturers have already expressed strong
interest in the Company's petalite and feldspar products, notably Corning
Consumer Product Company, the manufacturers of Corningware(r) and one of
the largest consumers of lithium minerals in the world.
Exploration work since January has been limited to data compilation and
geological modelling, but a new program of exploration drilling, with the
objective of defining new zones of tantalum and cesium enrichment, is
scheduled to begin in June. Two target areas on the east and west ends of
the Big Whopper petalite deposit have been identified from the compilation
work and a brief program of detailed structural mapping will be carried out
prior to drilling in order to define precise hole locations. This work
will begin immediately.
Pre-feasibility Study
The Company's consulting engineers, MICON International Ltd., now advise
that they expect to deliver the final report on the pre-feasibility study
by mid-June. The extended completion date is mainly attributable to
efforts by the Company to include more information on the feldspars in the
economic evaluation of the deposit, as a mineral processing flowsheet to
concentrate the feldspars was only recently developed by Lakefield Research
Ltd.
Initial test results on concentrates of both the Rb-K-feldspar and
Sodaspar, and a recent market evaluation, confirm these to be very high
quality products that should receive ready market acceptance and will
therefore, be valuable co-products of petalite production. The
Rb-K-feldspar concentrates contain high levels of potash and rubidium at
10.0-12.0% K2O and 0.9-1.0% Rb2O with very low levels of impurities,
notably iron at 0.02-0.04% Fe2O3, making this an excellent product for
certain ceramics applications such as electrical porcelain. The sodaspar
product is also an exceptionally pure variety containing over 10.0% Na2O
and just 0.02-0.04% Fe2O3. Further metallurgical testwork is required to
optimize the process methodology.
The other components of the study which have largely been completed include
1) the environmental baseline studies; 2) block modelling, reserve audit
and pit design work; 3) capital and operating cost estimates; and 4)
evaluation of the markets for the lithium minerals and feldspar products
from the Big Whopper by an independent consultant; Hains Technology
Associates. This study confirms that the markets for these products are of
sufficient size to support an initial 200,000 tpy production rate that can
be increased with time as new markets are developed.
Product Marketing Program
The product marketing work began in February with a visit by management to
the Martinsburg, WV plant of Corning Consumer Products Company ("Corning
Consumer"). The specifications on the Company's high-grade petalite
product were delivered to the plant's senior operations personnel along
with an overview of the Separation Rapids project. Considerable interest
was expressed in the project due to its convenient location near
transportation infrastructure in northwestern Ontario, the very large size
of the resource, the high quality of the petalite product and the Company's
willingness to provide a high level of customer service.
The Company subsequently received from Corning Consumer a written
expression of interest in purchasing petalite mineral concentrates from the
Separation Rapids project and a request to deliver a minimum of 500 tonnes
of petalite concentrate for in-plant production trials by the first quarter
of 2000. Future sales would be conditional upon a successful production
trial, negotiation of an acceptable price, demonstration that product
specifications can be met on a consistent basis and demonstration of an
adequate production capacity and delivery strategy. Management is
confident that the Company can easily meet these conditions. A bulk
sampling program to produce this sample, by processing a minimum of 5000
tonnes of ore in a pilot plant, is being scheduled for the summer.
Application for an advanced exploration permit for this work has already
been filed with provincial government authorities along with a closure
plan, and work on the last 3 km of the new access road to the site has been
initiated.
Corning Consumer also expressed interest in the feldspar mineral products
for certain of their other glass production facilities. The unique
character of the feldspars in the Big Whopper is already attracting
interest from ceramics manufacturers and to this end the Company has joined
the Whiteware Research Center at Alfred University, New York, a renowned
ceramics engineering school, to carry out testing of our feldspar products
for a variety of ceramics applications. Marketing efforts in the United
States began in April at the American Ceramics Society Annual Meeting and
Exposition in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Company will initiate marketing
efforts in Europe in May by attending the INTERCERAMEX '99 ceramics
exhibition in Telford, England and meeting several potential customers in
continental Europe.
For further information contact Donald S. Bubar, at (416) 364-4938.
Corporate Information may also be accessed on the internet at
www.avalonventures.com
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
"Donald S. Bubar"
Donald S. Bubar, President
*No stock exchange has either approved or disapproved the information
contained herein* |
