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Non-Tech : Bill Wexler's Dog Pound -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bob Trocchi who wrote (346)	3/19/1999 10:43:00 PM
From: BDR	Respond to of 10293

Re: ALTIF If the jig works (big if) then why would it take two to three years to start mining. It sounds like you turn the jig on and throw dirt in one end and gold, titanium or zircon pours out the other end. As I remember the postings of another contributor on the subject of titanium oxide it sounds like a low margin commodity and not a highly profitable product to be pursuing. But I guess titanium oxide probably sounds more sexy to prospective investors than paint pigment. Just like ferrous oxide sounds a whole lot more exciting than rust.

To: Bob Trocchi who wrote (346)	3/22/1999 4:48:00 PM
From: Q.	Respond to of 10293

It would be impossible for ALTIF to make significant progress with their jig over the course of several years simply because they aren't really trying. R&D expenditures are very very tiny for a development stage company, as you can see from the table below, from the 10k. The valuation of ALTIF is a fun thing to look at: Development stage companies typically have a market cap in the range of 1 to 40 times the cumulative R&D expenditures over the past 5 years. Message 8352050 For ALTIF, that ratio is probably in the range 100-200, indicating that the stock is severely overvalued. If you thought that their patent estate was worth a lot despite the lack of R&D expenditures that have gone into producing them, then you might ask whether the stock is reasonably valued. However, the patents appear to offer little protection, because the filings report that a competitor has sold multiple units of a centrifugal jig, and they do not report that ALTIF is challenging them on the basis of patent rights. ALTAIR INTERNATIONAL INC. CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS AND DEFICIT (Expressed in United States Dollars) Year Ended December 31, -------------------------------------------- 1998 1997 1996 ------------- ------------- ------------- Operating Expenses Testing, research and development $ 259,630 $ 78,034 $ 159,679 note that the amounts in the table above are in dollars, not thousands of dollars.