Hi WatsoYes EMM have been in the gunna class for quite a while....

Hi Watso

Yes EMM have been in the gunna class for quite a while. For many years though the senior management were techies who never seemed to clinch deals. That has now changed with the business oriented types they recently imported into the top ranks (Keevers and Melgard, and more recently Barry Kelly).

The potentially huge African projects might have been those referred to by ICS - EMM ahs a strategic alliance with ICS, who are touting the EMEW process to (mainly) copper miners or hopeful miners over there. It has has limited success though.

On the disappointing turnout with Goldstream, that was not a reflection of any shortcoming in the EMEW technology. The economics of using the EMEW process relied on a certain proportion of gold/silver being present in the leach streams. My understanding is that the actual production didn't measure up to what the early test work suggested would happen, and on that basis it no longer made sense to use EMEW cells in that application. Again, not a reflection on the ability or commerciality of EMM's technology.

On the Constellation link, that was only to the announcement that it has returned very favourable extraction rates for copper and zinc in the leaching process. The technical reports on the Terrazas project are elsewhere. (I have posted links to this and other research on s-scene on the EMM thread). For your info, the technical reports basically confirm that the EMEW route will be used for zinc powder extraction and note the costing for that is around C$23 million (in 2002 dollars!).

I accept that Constellation hasn't opted for the EMEW process for their Lisborn Valley copper project, or for the primary copper electrowinning for the Terrazas project. Plenty of reasons why that was so, but they don't negate the worth of the EMEW technology in other applications. The fact that it has also assessed the EMEW route as suitable for the zinc processing confirms that.

The Grasberg story too is open to misinterpretation. (In fact I entered EMM at that time on the back of the potential sale of thousands of EMEW cells to Grasberg - needed to treat their waste stream that was turning the local river into a green mess). The story there was that EMM was the clear front runner to get the contract, and then internal politicking in Freeport put the whole tender in limbo. When the politicking was over EMM was not the preferred candidate despite its clear superiority over the alternatives.

Finally, on the issue of EMEW not being used on various copper projects, don't assume this is because EMM's technology is no good. A year or so back I spoke to the CFO of a major company developing a copper mine and processing facility in Africa. He acknowledged that EMM's technology made the best technical and commercial sense - from both a capex and opex view - but he said they would not be using it. The reason he gave was that it was more important for them to lock in the finance than select the best technical and commercial technology. Their financiers were not familiar with EMEW technology and viewed it as an unproven risk. As such they would either put a huge premium on the cost of finance if the EMEW route was chosen, or they might not provide finance at all. The upshot of that was the company went down the proven tank house route rahter than using EMEW cells.

In other copper mines, the chemical nature of the ore dictates other processing routes - eg producing concentrates or copper paste rather than using EMEW cells.

EMM is at the stage of having to prove the technical and commercial worth of its EMEW technology outside the lab. The big difference now compared to the recent past is that it has an increasing nubmer of reference sites out there in the real world, and that it can point to and say 'See, here is one of our plants, working successfully on the same sort of ore that you guys want to mine and process'. And indications are that when it takes off it will rocket.

I hope for both our sakes that this little dog starts to bark soon. A good chunk of my SMSF is tied to its success!