Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: BDR who wrote (581)	4/5/1999 1:17:00 AM
From: Marconi	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10293

Hello Mr. Russell: ALTIF Out of idle curiosity, I now looked up titanium in CRC's Handbook of Chemistry and Physics--my ancient copy of the venerable handbook. Ti metal was a curiosity until Kroll demonstrated it could be made from TiCl4 with magnesium commercially. Prior to that sodium was used to reduce the tetrachloride. Ti is ductile if it is free of oxygen. The metal burns in air and is the only element that burns in nitrogen. The refractive index of TiO2 is 2.9--higher than a diamond's 2.4--but too soft to be used as a gem. Ti is the ninth most abundant element in the earth's crust. It occurs in the minerals rutile, ilmenite, and sphene. Oxygen, followed by silicon are the most abundant elements in the earth's crust, totaling about 1/4 the crust's weight (I would like to have seen the balance used in that determination....). My take is yes, it is difficult to believe that the mechanically enhanced air classifier (jig) will put a new spin into obtaining greater values from rutile sands. The value add in the Ti industry is downstream, not ore values recovery. Now if ALTIF were able to take 'as dug' material and spin out an economical yield of high grade consistent coloration of pigment grade TiO2, then they could be saving the difference between physical processing versus chemical processing. That I would value. I don't recall reading of any such claims for the jig. It's been more than 20 years since I looked at TiO2 pigment technology, but it seems to me DuPont was a leader and used the tetrachloride route to obtain the color purity and regular crystal habit for pigment grade TiO2. To my knowledge, since lead oxide (white lead or sugar of lead for the old timers) was removed from paint formulations, TiO2 has remained the choice white pigment--high RI and fine, dispersive particles. Silica just does not work as well, but is still used in white paints as a cheaper filler. This puts at least 3 decades commodity status on premium TiO2. I am very skeptical ALTIF has something given the age of their claims and the lack of the world beating a path to their door, with ample time to do so. I don't think it is the age of my brains--it's the claims. I do qualify myself as non-expert and probably not current, but if ALTIF has something new of value, they have failed to communicate what it is to me. I intend to short them approaching 10 if I can catch a spike up in price. Best regards, m