“Argex Titanium’s Disruptive Technology and More Abitibi Craziness” by Thom Calandra
MONTREAL -- Just back from the mecca of ice hockey. We have plenty of ideas on titanium dioxide processors, graphite developers and even that CABO VERDE beachfront and casino developer now trading, pre-split, on the Bulletin Boards USA.
A lot of lucre is at stake at Argex Titanium (TSX: RGX), which is many months into a $300 million raise (likely all debt) for a Montreal-area plant that could disrupt the cartel of a half-dozen companies creating the world's most valuable whiter-shade-of-pale.
Argex is RGX in Canada and ARGEF in USA. It's a special situation for TiO2, a whitener in paints,coatings, pigments, metals, even the middle of OREO cookies at one time.
The $120 million company could be on the cusp of a run of chemical processing plants that revise the tired-old and inferior process of creating titanium dioxide. Quelle horreur -- for Du Pont and other pigment developers.
All the chemistry, and the proprietary process for using ilmenite in a solvent extraction process to arrive at nearly pure titanium dioxide, hurts the head. [Remember,TCR might have a superior intelligent quotient, but its author, TC, does not]."
Onceour first industrial plant is built, RGX will be in the strongest position possible to decide the next step of its strategic growth: licensing, constructing new plants, retro-fitting existing plants, strategic regional alliances or some combination thereof," says Roy Bonnell, CEO and a founder of Argex, once an iron ore and vanadium prospector.
TCR got lucky. We were part of a group that was granted limited access to Argex's pilot plant, a jog from the St. Lawrence River and freshly planted rail. That Valleyfield, Quebec, part -- which included a non-disclosure on certain elements of the tour -- included a spell with two team leaders on the technology end: Enrico Di Cesare and Peter Waugh.
The two -- metallurgical engineers, pigment development veterans -- know as much about the several processes of creating the ultimate white additive, including the usual chloride process of making synthetic rutile, the feedstock for titaniumdioxide, as anyone in the world. No jive.
This is a technical development in a business of rapid growth. PPG Industries (PPG in USA) is a partner. If Argex succeeds in ramping up a 50,000-metric-ton yearly plant here in this industrial sliver of Montreal, it will have created a profit pill for shareholders and (future) partners, and a poison pill for its competitors, which include Du Pont de Nemours (DD in USA).
Titanium dioxide is found in pills, by the way, in cosmetics and in so many other products, it will make your head spin. It does mine. I do not own RGX shares.
After hearing Mr. Bonnell and his chief talking officer, er, I mean, financial officer, Glen Kayll, a veteran technology exec, present the Argex dynamic at corporate headquarters, across from McGill University's music conservatory in Montreal, I am looking at a purchase of RGX / ARGEF.
But first, some sonic-white aspirin please, with my titanium dioxide.
30 May, 2014
http://www.smallcappower.com/posts/argex-titanium-s-disruptive-technology-and-more-abitibi-craziness-by-thom-calandra
