21st May 2007 07:01
Applied Intellectual Capital plc21 May 2007 APPLIED INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL "AIC" or the "Company" Mine Waste Reprocessing Agreement Further to its announcement on 8 December 2006 Applied Intellectual Capital("AIC") (AIM: AINC) is delighted to announce that EverClear Solutions Inc.,("EverClear"), in which AIC holds rights to a 60% stake, has entered into anagreement with Weatherly International (AIM: WTI "Weatherly") to form a JointVenture ("JV") to recover copper, zinc, lead and silver from Weatherly's Tsumebmine tailings dam in Namibia. EverClear owns the exclusive rights to novelelectrochemical metals recovery technologies developed by AIC. Under the terms of the agreement with Weatherly, EverClear will pay US$4.6million for a 50% interest in the right to process the 15,000,000 tonnes ofTsumeb mine tailings. EverClear will receive a 50% share of the net proceedsfrom the sale of recovered metals. EverClear will make an initial payment of US$920,000 followed by the balance ofUS$3,680,000 consisting of a bankable feasibility study, including an on-sitepilot plant and cash. EverClear and Weatherly will provide further funding tothe JV to support operations. All capital costs for the JV are expected to beprovided by third party financing. The tailings contain unrefined copper, zinc, lead and silver ore. At today'sLME prices, data from publicly available sources indicate that the combinedvalue of copper, zinc, lead and silver in the Tsumeb tailings is approximatelyUS$1 billion. As announced in January AIC has successfully completed laboratory trials, onbehalf of EverClear, using samples provided by Weatherly from its Tsumeb dam.This has demonstrated yields in the range of 75-85% of refined high puritymetals. Work is currently underway to establish the duration, capital cost andoperating cost for full scale operation. Early indications are that on-sitemetals recovery and refining could take between 5 and 10 years. Provision hasbeen made to terminate the JV should field pilot testing prove unsuccessful. AIC AIC is an AIM listed company that funds, develops, patents and commercializeselectrochemical and advanced separations technologies in clean energy,electricity storage, water treatment, metals recovery and other emergingmarkets. AIC currently holds 35% of EverClear with an option to obtain afurther 25%. Dr Stephen Clarke, CEO of AIC, commented: "This demonstrates that EverClear's metals recovery process offers the potentialto recover significant value from mine waste. Given the difficulty ofprocessing this material using conventional technologies, any level of successat Tsumeb opens the door for EverClear to position its technology as a costeffective alternative to conventional primary recovery technologies in highlybuffered ores." 21 May 2007 Applied Intellectual Capital: Dr. Stephen Clarke Tel. +1 925 639 9399 Pelham Public Relations : Archie Berens / Tel. +44 (0)207 743 6672 Charles Vivian Nabarro Wells: Marc Cramsie/ John Wilkes Tel. +44 (0)207 710 7400 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
Weatherly International Plc