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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gasification Technologies -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (1536)	10/26/2008 7:58:00 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1740

SES Wants to Build Plant in China Instead By ANNIE DIMMICK POSTED: October 24, 2008 theintelligencer.net BENWOOD - Resources that had been expected to fund a coal liquefaction plant in Marshall County now apparently will be sent to the other side of the globe. On the same day Synthesis Energy Systems Inc. officials announced the company is pulling out of the Marshall County project, they also announced plans to build a similar plant in Henan Province, China. With a credit crisis under way in the United States, a joint venture agreement between SES and YIMA Coal Group guarantees debt financing for the plant in China from domestic Chinese banking sources. "The execution of the joint venture agreement with YIMA underscores our current focus on projects in China, where traditional bank financing remains accessible. We are fortunate to have a partner like YIMA that has the ability to provide a guarantee for the financing, which we believe will allow SES and YIMA to advance this project despite these turbulent financial times," said Tim Vail, president and chief executive officer of SES. "From an operational perspective, the ability to conduct coal testing in our Hai Hua commercial facility as opposed to a pilot plant will be invaluable to the design process." Much like the Marshall County plant, the Henan Province plant will utilize SES' licensed U-Gas technology to convert coal into synthetic gas, according to SES officials. However, the Asian plant will use lower quality coal and will be converting the resource into transportation fuels and chemicals; the Benwood facility would have converted coal to synthetic gas to produce methanol for use as a feedstock for the chemical industry and 87-octane gasoline. "YIMA is very pleased to have signed the joint venture contract with SES," said YIMA Chairman Wu Luyu in a news release. "Despite the downturn in the international financial markets, Chinese banks have recently decreased interest rates and the central government has reduced reserve ratios for banks, enhancing the ability of Chinese banks to lend to projects. We are committed to ensuring the financing for this project, as this is an encouraged industry in China with excellent government support. We believe this is an opportunistic time to be building new capacity, and we expect this project to be just the first step in a series of projects with SES." Preliminary estimate state the total required capital for the joint venture will be about $350 million. SES will own a 49 percent interest in the joint venture, while YIMA will own a 51 percent interest. In announcing its decision not to proceed in Benwood, SES officials said the company was re-evaluating its capital investments because of the unstable credit market in the U.S. On Sept. 15, SES reported revenue of $288,226 for fiscal 2008, crediting most of that money to synthetic gas sales from the Hai Hua plant in Zaozhuang City, Shandong Province, China. That plant, which was the first of its kind in China, employs more than 150 and is currently being expanded. "Clearly the most significant event for SES was the initial syngas sales from our first U-Gas plant in China. We are very proud of this achievement, as it signals our ability to build, own and operate coal gasification plants utilizing low-rank coal," Vail said. However, the company's net loss for fiscal 2008 was $27.4 million, or 80 cents per share, compared to a net loss of $13.1 million, or 47 cents per share, during fiscal 2007. The Houston-based company's stock was trading Thursday afternoon at $1.71 a share. The stock's 52-week high was $15.92, set in January; it hit a 52-week low of 73 cents a share on Oct. 10. Still, the company is moving forward with two coal-to-liquids plants in this country. "The U.S. market remains a core opportunity for U-Gas expansion, and we will continue to monitor the situation in order to make the best decisions on behalf of our shareholders," said Vail. "We continue to work with our partner North American Coal in the evaluation of U-Gas project sites in North Dakota and Mississippi."

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (1536)	12/19/2008 10:07:17 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Respond to of 1740

Synthesis Energy Systems and YIMA Coal Industry Group Co. Ltd. Hold Groundbreaking Ceremony for New Coal Gasification to Chemicals Plant in Henan Province, China Commitment Letter for debt financing received from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Friday December 19, 8:15 am ET biz.yahoo.com HOUSTON, Dec. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Synthesis Energy Systems, Inc. ("SES") (Nasdaq: SYMX - News), a global industrial gasification company, announced the groundbreaking ceremony for the first phase of its previously announced 1 million tonne per year coal to chemical plant (the "Plant") which is being developed with its joint venture partner, YIMA Coal Industry Group Co. Ltd ("YIMA"). The ceremony took place today at the Plant site in Yima City, Henan Province, China. Executives from SES and YIMA, as well as top level provincial and local governmental officials including Henan's vice governor, head of the provincial land bureau, head of the provincial environmental bureau, local presidents of China's leading banks, and other dignitaries participated in today's ceremony along with over 1,000 other attendees from the community. Once complete, the Plant will feed downstream process for the production of transportation fuels and chemical intermediates. This announcement follows SES' successful test run of the YIMA coal in the SES U-GAS® system at SES' Zao Zhuang gasification plant in November. Additionally, SES announced that it has received a loan commitment letter from the Yima City branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China which loans will represent 50% of the capital costs of the project. The final terms and conditions of the loan will be determined by the bank. At the ceremony, Lorenzo Lamadrid, Chairman of Synthesis Energy Systems, highlighted the strategic value of this project in the development of central China's coal to chemicals industry as part of the region's long term goal of providing clean energy and investing in leading technology to achieve that goal. He also commented, "Together with our partner YIMA, we are committed to building a world-class gasification plant that will convert low quality, low cost coals into high value transportation fuels and chemical products." YIMA's chairman Mr. Wu Luyu commented, "After the successful test of YIMA's high-ash coal at SES' Zao Zhuang plant, we are excited to move this project forward both because of the great near term opportunity it presents to our company and to the Henan Province but also because of the long term growth potential of our cooperation with SES both here and in other strategic locations in China. The U-GAS ® technology is ideally suited for the clean and efficient conversion of the type of coal abundant here in Henan and elsewhere in China, and we look forward to expanding our cooperation on more such projects with SES." The Plant will utilize SES' licensed U-GAS® technology to convert low- quality, high-ash sub-bituminous coal into syngas and downstream products that will help supply the region's growing needs for transportation fuels and chemical intermediates. The Plant will be constructed in a phased approach that takes advantage of the U-GAS® technology's ability to economically scale the build-out of capacity. SES will own a 49% interest in the joint venture and YIMA will own a 51% interest. About Synthesis Energy Systems, Inc. SES is an energy and technology company that builds, owns and operates coal gasification plants that utilize its proprietary U-GAS® fluidized bed gasification technology to convert low rank coal and coal wastes into higher value energy products, such as transportation fuel and ammonia. The U-GAS® technology, which SES licenses from the Gas Technology Institute, gasifies coal without many of the harmful emissions normally associated with coal combustion plants. The primary advantages of U-GAS® relative to other gasification technologies are (a) greater fuel flexibility provided by our ability to use all ranks of coal (including low rank, high ash and high moisture coals, which are significantly cheaper than higher grade coals), many coal waste products and biomass feed stocks; and (b) our ability to operate efficiently on a smaller scale, which enables us to construct plants more quickly, at a lower capital cost, and, in many cases, in closer proximity to coal sources. SES currently has offices in Houston, Texas and Shanghai, China. For more information on SES, visit www.synthesisenergy.com or call (713) 579- 0600. Forward Looking Statements [ snip ]