(COMTEX) B: Tri-Valley's Select Resources Corporation Subsidiary Signs Maj
r Joint Venture With Trans-Western Materials ( PRNews
B: Tri-Valley's Select Resources Corporation Subsidiary Signs Major Joint Ventur
With Trans-Western Materials ( PRNewswire-FirstCall )
BAKERSFIELD, Calif., Dec 10, 2004 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ --
Tri-Valley Corporation's (Amex: TIV) new mining subsidiary, Select Resources
Corporation, has signed its first major deal, an industrial minerals joint
venture with Trans-Western Materials LLC of San Diego, California, it was
announced today by F. Lynn Blystone, chief executive officer of both Tri-Valley
and Select. The joint venture is 50-50 and Select will be the operator.
The initial phase will be to re-open the Monarch Mine in eastern Kern County,
California to supply central and southern California customers with very high
grade calcium carbonate (CaCO3) in the range of 97% to 99% CaCO3 with a
whiteness grade of plus 96% Hunter and GE brightness. Approximately 15 million
tons of these grades are immediately available.
On a much larger scale, the JV, to be named Alpha Minerals and Chemicals, LLC,
has rights to an estimated 400 million tons of high grade CaCO3 from surface to
an as yet undetermined depth. With its proposed base load customer, Alpha
expects to enter the business as the third largest producer in California and
seventh largest in the nation.
Listed as an essential product for the manufacturing base by the State of
California, high grade CaCO3 is used in some 1,200 different products in such
industrial applications as stainless steel, paint and glass making, agricultural
uses and human uses range from cosmetics to antacids.
In California, the world's fifth largest economy, the demand for high grade
CaCO3 is growing at an approximate rate of 7% and both the commodity and
competition is limited.
"Our shareholders are more familiar with oil and gas terms so we're comparing
this on a volumetric basis that Tri-Valley estimates it has acquired half the
equivalent of a potential 800 million barrel oilfield with price per ton values
roughly equivalent to $25 to $50 barrel oil," Blystone said.
Dr. Henry J. "Rick" Sandri, executive vice president of Select Resources and an
industrial minerals expert, will be the executive director in charge of the
joint venture. He will be joined by the president and vice president of
Trans-Western, Marshall Pettit and Wayne Everett, as managing director and
senior director of mining and milling operations respectively as the initial
operating staff.
Directors of Alpha will be Blystone as chairman, Dr. Sandri, Dr. Harold J.
Noyes, a director of Tri-Valley and president of Select, Pettit, Everett and
Peter Tarnoff, a director of Trans-Western. Thomas J. Cunningham, chief
financial officer of Tri-Valley and Select, will also handle those duties for
Alpha. All these enterprises will be operated in the same manner as Tri- Valley
Corporation, which is a full reporting public company listed on the American
Stock Exchange under the symbol "TIV."
Tri-Valley, through Select Resources, will fund up to $2.5 million in loans to
establish Alpha operations while Trans-Western is providing mineral rights,
customer letters of intent, permits, facilities and equipment contacts, and the
organization to date.
"We expect this operating venture to rapidly add cash flow and share value to
all participating entities. This is an important component of business for
Select Resources, which will soon have additional important plant and equipment
assets plus precious metal and industrial mineral properties toward launching it
as a stand-alone mining company. Select will also operate Tri-Valley's 42-square
mile gold exploration project at Richardson, Alaska," Blystone said.
Yorkville / Cornell Tracking Board #board-9964
"I can think of no more valuable commodity than information"
