News Release: February 7, 2007
It had been the Company’s initial intention to set up the pilot plant (the “Plant”) at its Tokat / Zile operations and then make the necessary modifications to the circuit from the initial pilot capacities to a controlled ramp-up to full production. However, due to the delays alluded to in the News Release of January 4, 2007, the Company has modified its plans to make up for the aforementioned delays and to Due to Turkey’s pending entry into the European Union (“EU”), changes in policies, regulations, and laws are being announced and implemented on a regular basis. So far, all of the changes that could effect the Company’s activities in Turkey appear to be favorable – particularly as they relate to import duties and Value Added Taxes (“VAT”). Changes in corporate income taxes announced towards the end of last year should also greatly benefit the Company. MPAC is availing itself of local consultants to evaluate and take full advantage of such changes. MPAC has elected, after the December 2006 visit to the Plant and training of the personnel in Turkey, to take advantage of the inclement weather and proceed with the design modifications to the initial operation circuit so that once the testing is completed, other things being equal, the Plant can continue to initial production capacity without delay.With that in mind, MPAC is pleased to announce that assembly of the Plant has been continuing throughout 2007. The design of the downstream water and tailings circuits have been reviewed a number of times based on various Plant mass-balance estimates. The final capacities of the tailing ponds and the screen underflow clean coal ponds will be agreed to by the engineers once the massbalance of the Plant has been finalized. A contractor in Turkey will perform the crushing of the run-of-mine or raw coal. This contractor has completed the assembly of their crushing plant and has been instructed to perform crushing plant operational trials. The contractor will supply samples of crushed coal from these trials to the Company so testing can be performed. These will include performing a number of particle distribution lab tests to satisfy MPAC that the raw input coal will perform according to the overall Plant design. Moisture, ash, and kilocalorie testing will also be performed at the same time. When the quotes for the water and electrical upgrades were received by the Company, it became apparent that the Company should consider upgrading these systems to handle the final design tonnage of the Plant rather than performing a two-phase upgrade: Phase I being adequate for testing and pilot tonnages; and Phase II able to handle planned production tonnages. Given the cost differences and the additional work required to perform these two phases of upgrading, the Company has decided to proceed directly to the design and construction of these two systems to address the planned production tonnage. The rationale behind the design of the clean coal and tailing ponds will follow the logic behind the electrical and water upgrades. Consequently, the ponds will be designed and constructed for production tonnages rather than designing smaller capacity ponds solely for trials and pilot testing. The cost difference between the smaller versus the larger ponds, and the related infrastructure to support those ponds, is not substantial enough to design, engineer and build these ponds twice. The environmental permits required for a set of production-sized ponds is essentially the same as those required for testing or pilot ponds. In fact, the infrastructure required for the production ponds is more environmentally friendly as it is designed to be more permanent and to recycle most of the water. In accomplishing the above, the Company has determined that it will require additional capital at this time, and is pleased to announce that it is negotiating for a non-brokered, private placement to a maximum of 2,500,000 common shares at a price of $0.10 (ten cents) per share. The proceeds of this private placement will be used for general working capital and to advance the Company’s coal refining activities in Turkey. Other than in certain situations, there will be no finder’s fee payable, and where it is payable, it shall not exceed ten percent (10%). This offering is subject to acceptance by the securities regulatory authorities.
For further corporate information, please contact: ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS: ____________________________________ Firoz Lakhani The TSX Venture Exchange neither approved nor disapproved the contents
|
|
Site Developed and Maintained by Media Button.com Copyright 2005 All rights reserved.
|