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To: Don Lloyd who wrote (80413)	12/31/2001 11:03:49 PM
From: E. Charters	Respond to of 116815

Right now, most magnesium metal is got from hydroxyl precipitation from seawater. If other tiny quantities of metals were got from increased levels of water purification it would hardly flood the market, to coin a phrase. It would be hard to proscribe the operation of such plants as they serve a coastal water need. It is true that Hydro plants operate with a "free" energy source, as do wind and solar electricity plants. Yet they still requires good levels of compensation to operate. The metals are not free either. They require power by a type of electrolysis to be recovered. What governs the cost of many metals now is their relative crustal abundance, their power consumption in electrolysis, their corrosion life span and their heat of fusion. Nothing really changes in the seawater recovery process. There is high capital cost of the plant, relatively low recovery per ton, and distance to markets and making of markets as a cost as well. At the end we still face purification problems for the metals that remain the same. Production must be balanced to market. Run out of market for the cost balancers, such as magnesium, other chlorides and pure water and the economics changes quickly. On the other hand the benefit of property rights is completely done away with as you no longer have to fight land claims, search for metals, deal with governments, or dig deep dangerous holes. In fact you can put to sea where no one can touch you except god, and let the wind and waves supply power, or in the tropics, the sun. Regardless of the price balance of the metals, if one is the cheapest supplier there will be a business advantage. Nothing is supplied for free. Business will not grind to break even if countries can help it. There is also the factor of competence, patents, black box advantages, power costs, and closeness to water markets that allows higher volume. This stuff works best with cheap electricity. Copper can be mined profitably in BC at lower grade and smaller tonnage than anywhere else on the planet. This is because of their abundance of flow through hydro electrical power. (The far sighted BC government has thus eliminated large tracts of porfitable land from exploitation and crippled the mining industry for fear of becoming industrially competent.) There is probably a window of opportunity that with some patents and efficiencies would allow some money to be made. EC<:-}

To: Don Lloyd who wrote (80413)	1/1/2002 1:57:06 PM
From: Alex	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116815

<<The bullish argument for the American profit miracle was that the alleged tech-driven acceleration in productivity growth would persist for years to come, leading to lasting, big gains in profit margins. The productivity mirage was the first erroneous assumption of the New Era. Productivity gains do not automatically accrue to business. Depending on conditions in the labor and product markets, they may be absorbed by lower prices or higher wages. We have argued all along, of course, for reasons explained, that there never was a productivity miracle in the first place.>> dailyreckoning.com