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Gold/Mining/Energy : Altair Nanotechnologies -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JIM W who wrote (556)	2/4/1999 5:32:00 PM
From: CMason	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 603

Jim: Rumors of a potential ALTIF buyout have been floated often in the past; Dupont was often the purported buyer. Needless to say, nothing ever came of it. I frankly don't see a lot of appeal to a buyer, as the company has never had any revenues, obviously loses money, and the only assets are about 25 cents a share in cash, the CJ which has been under development forever without any impact on the sales, plus a lease on a hole in the ground. It's funny that, in their press releases, they claim, "Altair is the 100% owner of a large titanium/zircon mineral deposit in Tennessee", but their contemporaneous S-3 says that Altair "leases and is exploring an approximately 13,600 acre parcel of land near Camden, Tennessee . . . " Funny, doesn't sound like 100% ownership to me. Cute that their press release also references "the growing Ti02 pigment industry." While TiO2 prices have been going up, it's a cyclical business, and capacity seems to have gotten out ahead of demand. The Kronos division of NL Industries (NYSE:NL) is one of the larger manufacturers of TiO2. NL's stock hit a new 52-week low today, and their fourth-quarter earnings statement contained this interesting projection: "We expect that NL's operating income in 1999 will be lower than 1998 as Kronos reduces its production rates to better match demand for TiO2." Capacity planning in cyclical industries is difficult, but the environment doesn't seem to support bringing more capacity on line (or buying sources for TiO2 ore) at this time. You probably do your own research to supplement your newsletter's recommendations; if so, I'd look at ALTIF's early (1996) SEC filings, which show a pattern of merging various shell companies, issuing lots of unregistered stock, etc., and see if you really want to be part of this or not. By the way, ALTIF is somewhat unusual in that there is no limit whatsoever to the number of shares the board can issue without further shareholder approval. That alone would scare me off any long position. Hope this is helpful to you. Regards, CMason

To: JIM W who wrote (556)	2/5/1999 3:36:00 AM
From: John S. Baker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 603

This response is an attempt to address the narrow issue of whether there is a pump-and-dump going on ... regardless of whether you, I or Mark Skousen think the company has potential value. This chart is very interesting: 209.67.221.61 The lower chart is a running total of the technical indicator Money Flow Index (MFI). MFI measures the net flow of money into or out of a stock and thus is believed to indicate whether a stock is under accumulation or distribution. Looking at this chart, it would suggest steady accumulation since late August, 1998 ... which is good. But if we zoom in on that chart to show only the last month: 209.67.221.61 It sure does look as if somebody disposed of some stock on February 3rd, as there is a significant net MFI decline on that day ... which is bad. Reckon this chart bears close watching. (Incidentally, the red bars on the upper chart depict the (relative) number of transactions which occurred at a given price. Put another way, it shows how many people are in the stock at that price. Thus looking at the 12-month chart, it suggests that there is strong support in the $7-10 range, and virtually no resistance above $10 ... which is a good sign.) Alternative interpretations welcomed. JSb.

To: JIM W who wrote (556)	2/5/1999 8:33:00 AM
From: Rajiv	Respond to of 603

Jim, A few weeks back, I spent sometime reviewing all the posts on this thread - I have changed my opinion over the last few months. This time last year, I was at least prepared for the small possibility that the CJ will generate modest revenues. Now, I am very confident that the whole thing is a scam. There are simply too many red flags associated with the Altair story. For starters.. - No revenues - Miniscule R&D expenses A few days back, Altair sneaked in a SEC filing registering 1.5 million shares. This would have been an uphill task for them to do. Within a few days, we get this Prudential story. Is this a coincidence ? It looks like a P&D to me.. As for what I think about the analysts views on Altair... From the Prudential report - We estimate that these jigs from applications other than Camden may generate revenues of $2 million-$3 million in 1999 and over $7 million in 2000." IMHO, this will never happen.. I believe some newsletters are talking about buy-outs, mergers, etc. - IMHO, there will be no buy-outs. A few years down the line, we will probably see some mergers with other speculative mining shells (similar to the ones which Altair has gone through over the last decade). IMHO, the CJ is worthless and so is the Camden property. Altair has no worthwhile assets. It only has a story. All comments imo. Regards. Rajiv P.S. Welcome to SI.