Avalon sends calcium feldspar sample to glass manufacturer (January 04, 2007)

Avalon Ventures (AVL-V) is hopeful that an agreement to deliver a 500-tonne bulk sample of calcium feldspar to a major North American glass manufacturer will lead to a long-term supply contract.

The calcium feldspar will come from the Warren Township anorthosite project near the village of Foleyet, 100 km west of Timmins, Ont.

The manufacturer is using the product for a full-scale furnace trial to make fiberglass over the next six months.

Calcium feldspar is being evaluated by the manufacturer as an alternative raw material for certain fiberglass applications that offer product quality, cost and environmental benefits, including reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The mineral can be melted into glass more quickly, thus requiring less energy.

The company is being positioned as a supplier of mineral products for environmentally friendly applications.

Avalon specializes in industrial minerals and rare metals with high technology applications. Rare elements like indium, lithium, neodyumium and beryllium are used in rechargeable batteries, electronics such as plasma televisions and super magnets for electric motors in hybrid cars.

A toll milling facility in southern Alberta has been selected to do the work. Avalon president Don Bubar says there was little cost difference to use a mill in Alberta.

The process for making calcium feldspar involves dry grinding and magnetic removal of the very small amounts of contained ferro-magnesian minerals from the ore.

The glass manufacturer will fund about a third of the $500,000 project. Bubar says that it is unusual for the manufacturer to help pay for the bulk test.

“Their interest is very serious,” says Bubar. “Participating in the cost is a clear indication of that.”

Avalon is preparing to start environmental assessments, operating permit applications and community consultations in anticipation that the trial will be successful. If it is, the company expects to go ahead with quarry development and plant construction during the second half of 2007.

Avalon has three mining claims at the 1,800-acre Warren Township property. The company took over the property from Purechem, a private company that spent more than $200,000 between 1993 and 2001 evaluating the site for aluminum chemicals and calcium feldspar.

Purechem completed a positive pre-feasibility study and found a customer that wanted to buy at least 12,000 tonnes per year after a successful 320-tonne bulk sample. However, due to weak equity markets, Purechem could not secure the $250,000 in financing it needed and was forced to abandon the project.

Avalon had Purechem’s pre-feasibility study updated in 2003. In 2004, the company spent $80,000 on the collection and processing of a 10-tonne bulk sample to produce test quantities for a customer in they glass industry and another in the paper industry. The project didn’t move forward because the sodium level was too high for the glass customer and the project wasn’t cost efficient enough with just the paper customer.

The company says calcium feldspar could replace high cost kaolin and high purity limestone used for fiberglass, which are now imported from the United States. Worldwide demand for reinforcing glass fiber is forecast to grow at a rate of 5% per year over the next five years, Avalon says.

Avalon has six projects in its portfolio; three at advanced stages and all in Canada, including the Thor Lake beryllium rare earths-yttrium-zirconium deposit in the North West Territories and the Separation Rapids lithium-tantalum deposit near Kenora, Ont.

Avalon shares dropped about 13.5%, or 14, to 90 apiece with a volume around 69,000 after the calcium feldspar announcement Thursday. The TSX/S&P Capped Diversified Metals and Mining Index was down 3% and the Global Gold Index lost about 1.8%.