RENO, Nev., July 30, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Altair Nanotechnologies Inc. (Nasdaq:ALTI), announced today that Dr. Dirk Verhulst, Engineering Manager of the company's Nanomaterials subsidiary will present a Scientific Paper entitled, "NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN THE ALTAIR HYDROCHLORIDE TIO2 PIGMENT PROCESS" at the International Symposium of Hydrometallurgy to be held August 24 -- 27, 2003 in Vancouver, Canada.
Process adjustments to Altair's proprietary pigment process have resulted in a significant improvement in the purity levels of its commercial TiO2 pigment base. Chromophore impurities (elements that impart color to pure white TiO2 pigment) are a concern in TiO2 pigment base and these elements are typically found in most all naturally occurring titanium ore deposits. In particular, iron, chromium, nickel, vanadium, and manganese contribute to pigment discoloration and lower the whiteness and brightness. Chromophore impurities are problematic in most of the world's known ilmenite ore reserves. It is costly and difficult to remove these impurities using the existing chloride or sulfate process.
Many of the world's new ilmenite resources exhibit some or all of these impurity problems. High chromium concentrations in Australia's newest titanium mineral resources in Murray Basin will require some chemical pretreatment prior to sale to chloride process pigment manufacturers. Global Resource estimates in Murray Basin will exceed 1 billion tons and contain approximately 30 million tons of heavy minerals. According to some industry analysts, the Murray Basin deposit could raise projected world chlorinatable ilmenite mining in 2004 by 5% (in TiO2 units). The total value in pigment TiO2 from this deposit is projected to be $16 billion. Chlorinateable ilmenite requires very low impurity levels to prevent operations problems and to produce pure white TiO2 pigment. Several chromium reduction strategies are now being examined but it is likely that blending, which is a costly process, may be required to produce products with impurities and TiO2 levels suitable for the chloride process TiO2 market. New technologies will be required to economically reduce high levels of chromium, magnesium and manganese in the ore for acceptance in the chloride or sulfate process TiO2 markets. As an alternative, the new Altair Hydrochloride Pigment Process (AHPP) can be used to economically produce pigment directly from ilmenite ore with difficult to remove impurities.
The enhanced AHPP employs digestion of ilmenite ore in concentrated hydrochloric acid, solvent extraction to concentrate titanium in a purified stream and spray hydrolysis to produce a TiO2 hydrate, followed by final calcining and milling. Hydrochloric acid gas is regenerated by pressure-swing distillation and re-injected in the leaching solution. All chloride streams are recycled and waste streams including digestion and iron oxide residues make the process environmentally friendly.
The process was previously tested at a five ton per day feed scale. Recent work at pilot scale has led to further improvements. Recovery of titanium in solution is now at least 90 percent from ilmenite ores, while crystallization at lower temperature reduces iron and impurities in solution to less than 5 grams per liter. This favorably impacts solvent extraction, which is now conducted in columns. Higher titanium and lower iron concentrations in the solvent extraction improves the process economics to a greater extent. Third party engineering and industrial interest groups have also confirmed that the AHPP process has a low operating cost and is an environmentally friendly process.
Dr. Bruce Sabacky, Altair's Director of Research and Development commented, "The new solvent extraction columns recently installed to demonstrate impurity control are significantly more effective than the mixer settlers originally installed in Altair's 5 ton per day demonstration plant. The 20'x 1" columns performed extremely well in testing application and have demonstrated the ability to reject essentially all the impurities of several low-cost ilmenites tested by Altair. The columns can be easily scaled up to accommodate a 100,000 ton per year pigment plant," added Dr. Sabacky.
Altair's Dr. Dirk Verhulst will present the paper in collaboration with Dr. Bruce Sabacky, Mr. Timothy Spitler and Mr. Jan Prochazka at "2003 International Symposium on Hydrometallurgy" organized by The Metallurgical Society (USA), the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, and the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME). The conference takes place in Vancouver on August 24-27, 2003. His presentation titled NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN THE ALTAIR HYDROCHLORIDE TIO2 PIGMENT PROCESS updates these significant developments.
Altair Nanotechnologies is actively seeking potential licensees and industrial partners for the further development of its new TiO2 technology.
ALTAIR NANOTECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Nanotechnology is rapidly emerging as a unique industry sector. Altair Nanotechnologies is positioning itself through product innovation within this emerging industry to become a leading supplier of nanomaterials and technology worldwide. Altair owns a proprietary technology for making nanocrystalline materials of unique quality both economically and in large quantities. The company is currently developing special nanomaterials with potential applications in pharmaceuticals, fuel cells, solar cells, advanced energy storage devices, thermal spray coatings, catalysts, cosmetics, paints and environmental remediation. For additional information on Altair's nanoparticle materials, visit www.altairnano.com.
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