GL Energy and Exploration Inc. - Rutile Reserves (Titanium)
February 18 2004 - 9:01AM
PR Newswire (US)
GL Energy and Exploration Inc. - Rutile Reserves (Titanium)
VANCOUVER, Feb. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- GL Energy and
Exploration Inc. (GEEX). The primary mineral associated with the
deposits located in Chile, South America is Rutile or commonly
referred to as Titanium. The annual revenues for Rutile or
(Titanium) from one of the two deposits would be $81,000,000 and
reserves are sufficient for 38 years. The GEEX interest would be
60% for a $8,000,000 investment. Recently, the Rio Tinto Group
(London) announced plans to spend $100 million Cdn. Expanding its
titanium dioxide plant in Quebec to meet rising demand for the
material used as a pigment in paint, plastics and paper. Capacity
will increase to 325,000 tons a year by early 2005 from the current
250,000 tons now, the company said. This expansion involves
converting Ilmenite (FeTiO3) to synthetic rutile (TiO2, titanium
oxide) using hydro- electricity. Quebec has a lot of hydro-power
(from Labrador) same as Norway, which is the leading manufacturer
of synthetic rutile with Ilmenite feedstocks being converted to
synthetic rutile. The GEEX/SEM project will produce high quality
rutile and zircon and the rutile does not need to go through this
expensive process. The world's output for rutile, both synthetic
and natural is 550,000 metric tons per year and 1,000,000 metric
tons of zircon per year. The world's consumption of rutile
increases at a rate of 2 1/2 % to 3% annually and has been in short
supply for a decade or so since no large supply of natural rutile
has been found or developed, the supply of rutile (TiO2) mainly
coming from ilmenite that is synthesized to rutile (titanium
dioxide) which is a very expensive process. The GEEX/SEM project,
for each production plant installed will account for 9.7% of the
world's supply of rutile and 3.4% of the world's supply of zircon.
This production will not affect the price of rutile since it has
been in short supply for over a decade and the cost of Synthesizing
ilmenite to rutile has been going up due to the increasing cost of
energy. A new and cheap method of producing titanium metal from
rutile has recently been developed, which will impact on the supply
of rutile. Titanium metal being light, strong, and non-reactive has
found increasing usage particularly in the automotive industry.
This new refining process is called the FFC-Cambridge process.
Contact: Ray Johnson 1-866-639-3900 Website:
http://www.chileanmining.com/ Certain of these statements contained
in the press release may be deemed forward-looking statements, and
factors that could actual results to differ materially from these
statements and matter are risks that other factor detailed from
time to time, in the Company's reports with Securities and
Exchanges Commissions, including, but not limited to, the Company's
Annual Reports on Form 10-K and its Quarterly Form 10-Q.
DATASOURCE: GL Energy and Exploration, Inc. CONTACT: Ray Johnson,
1-866-639-3900; Website: http://www.chileanmining.com/
Copyright