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Gold/Mining/Energy : Pacific Rim Mining V.PFG -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mark K. who wrote (8767)	2/23/1998 2:07:00 PM
From: Bill Jackson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 14627

ÿ Mark; They use the microwave to selectively heat and decompose sulfides etc to help; They are at emrmicrowave.com and here is a bit from their site. Bill Many mineral compounds and natural formations (mineral ores together with other host materials) are semi-transparent to microwave energy and exhibit strong differential heating characteristics, that is, the mineral ores can be rapidly and selectively heated within the host material. This heating process can then be used as a means of "processing" the ores either through continued heating (leading to partial or complete smelting) or through intermediate chemical reactions in which the heat provides reaction energy for the desired chemical process. One material can thus be reacted with others to produce desired products or can be chemically processed alone to break down natural ore compounds. EMR has concentrated on a range of metallurgical problems related to recovery of gold, platinum and other precious, strategic and industrial metals which share the common presence of unwanted "contaminants" such as sulphur, arsenic, antimony, tellurium, etc. in their natural ore composition. Industrially, these problems are of enormous economic importance to the Canadian and international mining sector. Extensive development work at EMR using complex ores and concentrates has demonstrated a wide range of chemical and metallurgical processes with significant commercial potential. The establishment of EMR's full scale development and pilot facility enables the company to undertake a methodical program of demonstrating the full range of interactions between microwave power and mineral products (including both intermediate and end products), engineering methods of controlling and optimizing the processes and scaling the operation up to industrial pilot size. EMR's experimental investigations have included complex ores, precious and strategic metals and high-sulphur concentrates and ores. Advances made by EMR constitute breakthroughs of substantial commercial potential and result directly from the unique applicators and containment systems which form the core of EMR's microwave process technology. EMR's unique expertise in the design of these applicators provides a crucial strategic advantage. Extensive tests of several complex ores and concentrates include more than 1000 different mineral samples which were exposed to a wide range of microwave energy levels, including both cool and extremely hot reactions (20øC - 2000øC). Subsequent chemical and mineralogical analyses where performed using microprobe and diffraction analysis techniques. EMR has succeeded in demonstrating a wide range of interactions with mineral whole ores and concentrates. The Company has focused on a methodical program to identify intermediate and end products and the relationship of these products to microwave power and energy levels. The immediate goal has been the removal of contaminants such as arsenic, antimony, sulphur and tellurium through either dry (direct microwave) or "wet" (soluble product) processes and the demonstration of very high metal recoveries through conventional recovery methodologies. The broader implications for this technology in the mining industries are very significant. There are numerous existing mining operations where the operator must contend with the metallurgical problems that are inherent with a refractory ore body. Typically, a refractory gold deposit consists of an arsenopyrite-pyrite gold ore and one must apply roasting, autoclaving or bioleaching in order to debond the gold particles from the host mineralogy. These methods are either very expensive (autoclaving and roasting) or cannot be applied to higher grade deposits. Microwave energy can be applied selectively since the conductive material (iron, copper, gold, silver, etc.) will quickly react chemically, releasing the "contaminant" products such as arsenic, antimony and sulphur. This leads to very significant energy savings and the avoidance of toxic byproducts, both of which have large economic impact on the mining industry. Several major Canadian gold mining companies have recognized the potential of this process since these properties of the microwave system have now been demonstrated at a pre-commercial pilot level. Further, it has also been demonstrated that this same microwave process provides a potential mechanism for neutralizing mine tailings through the removal of sulphur which is the principal cause of acid drainage groundwater contamination. ÿ ÿ In April 1997, EMR announced the signing of its first joint venture agreement with Minex Resources, LLC of Phoenix, Arizona for commercial application of its pre-treatment process. Piloting is to proceed in Arizona and Fredericton throughout the spring of 1997, with a planned start of commercial production for August 1, 1997. EMR will receive a gross royalty equal to half the enhancement in the recovery due to EMR's technology, but not less than 8.8% of gross revenue. Minex owns the mineral rights to one stockpile containing more than 200,000 tons of concentrate, and has an option to acquire another stockpile containing more than 400,000 tons of concentrate. Assay and recovery estimates are based on gold and platinum values reported by several independent U.S. laboratories and supported by EMR's internal analysis. Average assays for gold (0.758 oz/ton) and platinum (1.700 oz/ton) represent an equivalent gold value of approximately 2.63 oz/ton with an expected 80% recovery. For internal projections, the company is assuming a conservative 60% recovery figure, or 1.5 oz/ton. EMR's calculations, based upon a gold price assumption of $355 (US) per ounce, are that EMR's mining royalty is worth an undiscounted $38 million Cdn over a planned eight year production period. If the target production of 112,500 ounces per year is reached, EMR's minimum annual royalty will be in excess of $4.5 million Cdn. Work is continuing with Goldcorp Inc. on developing a microwave based pre-treatment process for its Red Lake, Ontario mine. Goldcorp's material has a high sulphur and arsenic content and presents an important opportunity to demonstrate the unique effectiveness of EMR's technology in economically processing such materials without producing environmental contaminants. The commercial process pilot operation will take place at EMR's new pilot plant located on the outskirts of Fredericton, New Brunswick and is scheduled for late spring of 1997. EMR is at various stages of process design with several companies on more than a dozen other ore bodies where EMR's technology appears advantageous. Test results on these various ore samples have proven to be extremely promising. EMR's business priority for 1997 is to consummate several more joint venture agreements similar in value to the Minex contract. ÿ ÿ