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Gold/Mining/Energy : AZC - AZCO MININGS (AMEX:AZC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tim Hall who wrote (101)	6/24/1999 7:46:00 PM
From: BHunt	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 118

Hi Tim...Thanks for the perspective. We need more of the same. Detailed DD helps everyone and a diversity of sources is a good thing. From what I have heard from that report from you and others, you are looking at the price range for wet ground, UNPROCESSED mica. The sources in the US for same are well known to be mostly sources of low quality. In fact scrap grades are where most producers operate. The aspect being provided in many of these operations is no higher than 30-50, far below what is needed in cutting edge applications including the new generation of plastics that are so hard they are making drill bits out of it! No question that AZCO will be producing some mica that meets these rather basic requirements. Their huge deposits enable them to produce a large variety of product, allowing them to stratify their market across many levels of demand. It takes a high quality and high purity to enable the production of the higher grades. They have it and from what I can tell, others don't. The basic price of $1 is entirely feasible when you consider the range of product at even the bottom end of the spectrum. Higher levels are indeed possible as you add in the prices of high grade product. These micas are not in huge supply and could dictate product development on top of supplying current users with an improved additive for existing production processes. Currently in plastics, the traditional fiber enhanced products which are quite strong and rigid are giving way to a blend of fiber and higher aspect ultra-fine mesh mica. This blend makes for a superior product and since most hi tech plastics are compounded by special order to fit specialized needs, such an enhancement is sure to create interest. What is coming out of India is below the aspect and mesh (particulate size) that Azco will produce. The freight alone will give Azco an advantage. I've heard that the company has even received an inquiry from some sizable user in Japan who needs the high aspect mica and can't get it. The freight would break him even and he stands to get what he needs from Azco, unlike India. If you have any more details about PROCESSED Mica prices, I and everyone would be most appreciative to receive them. I have found the same to be hard to find, as even the suppliers of basic grades keep their cards close to the vest in terms of their pricing structure. I think it has something to do with the fact that most mica mining operations have the mica as a sideline, and don't try to do much quality enhancement. They pop it out as a commodity...especially when it is scrap grade to begin with. So to summarize, it would "involve a little dreaming" for other scrap level suppliers to fetch the prices of higher quality mica. Here, when you take in the pricing of PROCESSED mica, it seems to lend an easy an calculated step to $1/lb and more. BHunt