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[December 2003]
Mine Waste to be Processed for Ceramic Production
Emgold Mining Corporation has signed an exclusive world-wide licence agreement with Ceramext LLC to develop and use the Ceramext(tm) Process to convert mine tailings and other waste materials into high quality ceramics. The process is a patented, energy efficient, one-step technology capable of converting a wide variety of raw materials - including mine tailings and fly ash - into high strength, low porosity ceramic products such as floor tiles, roof tiles, bricks, construction materials and also other industrial and commercial products.Ceramext has a patent on the equipment and other patents pending on the process, which uses a vacuum hot extrusion of waste materials to produce high quality industrial ceramics. The process has been demonstrated on a laboratory basis on a wide variety of materials, including coal, lignite and bio-mass fly ash, bottom ash, slag, clays, volcanic ash and mine tailings.
Specifically, Ceramext has tested tailings from the Idaho-Maryland Mine and has successfully produced very high quality ceramic blanks using the Ceramext Process suitable for forming into a wide variety of ceramic products using standard finishing technology. Independent marketing surveys conducted in California indicate that floor tiles are worth approximately US$1.25 to US$1.50 per square foot on a wholesale basis, which translates approximately US$400 to US$500 per ton of feedstock to the process.
Emgold, through its subsidiary Golden Bear Ceramics Corp, expects to build a pilot and demonstration plant to determine the feasibility of converting mine tailings to ceramics at its Idaho-Maryland Gold Mine Project in Grass Valley, California. Preliminary engineering studies indicate low capital and operating costs in comparison to conventional industrial ceramic operations. Golden Bear will spend US$1.2 million on building the pilot plant.
ENDS