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Gold/Mining/Energy : TITANIUM CORPORATION INC.- The Next Major Mining Play -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Winzer who wrote (163)	12/4/1999 10:28:00 AM
From: chevalier	Respond to of 343

This from today's Cape Breton Post: Balser confirms meeting with bank trying to sell Sysco Balser confirms meeting with bank Economic Development Minister Gordon Balser confirmed Friday the province already has been apprised of the list of prospects for Sysco. Representatives of the province, the executive of the Sysco board met officials of ABN AMRO “recently and were brought up to date,” he said. The Dutch bank has been commissioned by Sysco to find a buyer. The minister responsible for Sysco said everybody involved is cognizant of the date (Dec. 31 deadline) on the horizon. “We are hopeful the potential buyers will stay interested” through the request for proposal stage. In an attempt to ease the worry of steelworkers living through the countdown to closure, 28 days and counting, Balser said the first priority if the plant does close is the workforce. “It's the premier's commitment and I want to reassure them their pensions are taken care of.” Balser would not give any suggestion of the numbers of expressions of interest abiding by the whole issue of confidentiality that has been in place throughout the sale process. “Discussions are ongoing at this point and everyone knows the time line.”

To: Winzer who wrote (163)	12/7/1999 11:06:00 AM
From: chevalier	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 343

Here is a very positive article that came out in the Halifax Chronicle Herald business section today. Tuesday, December 7, 1999 Back The Halifax Herald Limited Titanium may make it harder to scrap Sydney steel By Roger Taylor I HEARD an interesting take Monday on the closure of Sydney Steel. A caller suggested that the expense of closing the almost-century-old steel plant may be far greater than the $200,000 to $500,000 many people expect. There's nothing new about people making warning noises about the negative effect the the steel plant's closure would have on the community, but this time the caller made a case that may not be as obvious to everyone. Most who argue to keep the Sydney plant going refer to the impact the closure would have on Cape Breton businesses. Lost jobs results in less money spent at local stores; it's as simple as that. On a larger scale, they suggest that transporting Sysco's steel rails is a key reason the railway link to Cape Breton has remained open. Loss of the rail line as a result of the closure of the plant, they argue, makes Cape Breton even less attractive to companies from away. The caller was concerned that the provincial government may be pressured to carry out its threat to close Sysco if a buyer cannot be found by the end of the year and will not allow time for other options to develop. He suggested closure of the provincially run steel plant could hamper development in other parts of the province. For example, he said, Titanium Corp. of Canada Ltd., a private company, has made a significant discovery near Truro. The titanium discovery is estimated to be in the millions of tonnes - considered marketable by any standard. While closure of the steel plant would not necessarily block the mining of titanium, the caller said the mining operation might have a positive effect on the viability of Sydney Steel - if the province can wait. Instead of shipping all the titanium out of Nova Scotia to be processed into steel elsewhere, the caller suggested that Sysco should have an opportunity to do something with the super-hard mineral. If the mine goes ahead, Sysco would have a preferential source of titanium, from a Nova Scotia source. The developers of the titanium mine would also benefit from a processing arrangement that would support them in proceeding with titanium production. Titanium Corp. and its partner, Nar Resources Ltd., a publicly traded company based in Toronto, suggest that a titanium "slag facility" would best be located near Sysco. That slag plant would separate titanium slag and create an iron byproduct. The liquid iron byproduct could then be fed directly into the steel mill's electric arc furnace. Nar Resources said in a release that the slag plant would offer "a significant cost benefit," compared to the world price for scrap, and would contribute to a reduction in power and electrode consumption. The process of creating the titanium slag also generates gases, which could be used as fuel by Sysco, the release said. The caller also suggested a branch line could be built to the titanium deposits in order to ship ore to Cape Breton by rail, thus making the rail line to Sydney that much more viable. The titanium deposit near Truro and the steel plant in Sydney already have something in common. Nar Resources and Titanium Corp. hired Hoogovens Technical Services to conduct a viability study of the mineral deposit, focusing on Sysco as the primary market for the mineral. The province is paying Hoogovens $700,000 per month to run the Sydney steel mill, until the end of this month. Hoogovens Technical Services is a subsidiary of Corus Group, the company created from the Oct. 6 merger of Royal Hoogovens and British Steel PLC. Roger Taylor is business editor of The Chronicle-Herald and The Mail-Star. E-mail: rtaylor@herald.ns.ca Back Copyright ¸ 1999 The Halifax Herald Limited