Objective Capital's Industrial Metals, Minerals & Investment Summit 2010 London Chamber of Commerce and Industry 3 November 2010 Speaker: Gerry Clarke, Industrial MInerals Advisor

1. INDUSTRIAL METALS, MINERALS
AND MINEABLE ENERGY
INVESTMENT SUMMIT 2010
LONDON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY ● WEDNESDAY, 30 NOV 2010
www.ObjectiveCapitalConferences.com
Industrial Minerals: curiosity or sound investment?
Gerry Clarke – Industrial Minerals Advisor

2. Industrial Minerals
Mere geological curiosity
or
Sound business investment?
By
Gerry Clarke
Industrial Minerals Commentator

3. Industrial Minerals
Any naturally occurring substance exploited for
industrial value other than for a source of fuel,
metal, precious stone, or water.
Where appropriate for commercial analytical
sense the man-made counterparts of
industrial minerals are also included.

4. Industrial Minerals
Encompass more than 50 rocks & minerals from
apatite thru diatomite, gypsum, nepheline
syenite, potash and sulphur to zircon.
Evolved hand in hand with man’s increasingly
sophisticated solutions for shelter, glass &
ceramic, heat containment, coatings, food
provision & storage, mineral exploitation,
transport & communication, refining &
manufacturing, high technology, and more....
Serve all facets of life we need and enjoy.

5. Industrial Minerals
Place value and unit value extremes – examples:
sand & gravel, industrial diamond, fluorspar
Overlap with metal ores -- examples:
bauxite, chromite, rutile, iron ore, magnesia
Synthetic competing counterparts – examples:
soda ash, abrasives, fly ash waste, graphite
Physical & chemical properties important for IM.

6. Processing Industrial Minerals
All levels of complexity:
Size Reduction, Classification, Cleaning
Mineral Separation & Concentration
Heat Treatment: volatiles loss/expansion
Fine grinding, Classification, Delamination
Chemical modification, Blending
Product forming, Shaping
Tailored mineral-based solutions prevalent

7. Industrial Minerals Markets
Markets are complex
Grades are numerous & deposit specific
Specifications are numerous
Variable geographic sphere of market influence
Price complexity and obscurity
Supply/demand technically & economically driven
Generally disordered markets
Corporations vary massively in size
Absence of any terminal marketplace clearing

8. Industrial Minerals
Examples
Talc
Fluorspar
Magnesia

9. Talc Mg3Si4O10(OH)2
Diverse mineralogy, sources and markets
Many kinds of talc deposit
Paint, Plastics, Paper, Ceramics, Cosmetics
Large number of customers
Many grades for different applications
Market evolution by extended geographical
sphere of influence & corporate consolidation

10. Fluorspar CaF2
Chemical: HF and derivatives
Metallurgy: steel and aluminium
Other: ceramics & welding rod electrodes
Some fluorspar deposits are better than others
Some synthetic competition from FSA
China acidspar impact since 1980
2008 price volatility & supply squeeze
Annually negotiated prices dwarf spot sales volumes
Projects in the wings: Canada, Sweden, Vietnam, S Africa, ++

11. Magnesia: synthetic periclase MgO
Macrocrystalline magnesite (90% total resource)
Cryptocrystalline magnesite MgCO3
Brucite Mg(OH)2 (rare)
Brines: seawater, aquifers, inland lakes/seas
Different physical forms of magnesia for different uses are
made by increasing temperature and residence times in
varying kiln and furnace types (multi-hearth, shaft, rotary):
Light burned CCM: 700-1,050oC highly porous reactive MgO
Hard burned CCM: 1,000-1,500oC denser slow release MgO
Dead burned CCM: 1,500-2,300oC refractory neg. react. MgO
Electrofused MgO: 2,800-3,000oC superior ref/elec props

12. Some thoughts
Comalco: kaolin in Australia
Silica sand in the Caribbean
Spodumene in North Carolina
Fluorspar in UK, Tasmania, in sandstones
Dolomite in Spain
Sepiolite dominated by Tolsa in Spain
White bentonite dominated by S&B in Greece
Imerys dominating globally
RTZ a major player in salt, diamonds, talc, borates

13. Bottom Line
Compared with other mineral resource types the
successful development of industrial minerals
projects is far more dependent on the outcome
of in-depth market research that needs to occur
alongside the early exploration stages.
It is more appropriate to identify market needs and
then to look for industrial minerals solutions than
it is to look for a market for an identified deposit.

14. Bottom Line
A technically excellent industrial mineral deposit
may well remain a geological curiosity whilst
an inferior one may become the basis for a
viable long term business dependent upon
supply, demand, logistics and the propensity
for materials substitution.
Market intelligence is the key to success