September 4, 2013 -- Tracy Weslosky, Publisher of InvestorIntel, interviews Ian Chalmers, Managing Director of Alkane Resources Ltd. (ASX: ALK | OTCQX: ANLKY) and discusses Alkane's +40% July increase in its share price as well the company's agreement with Treibacher for production of ferro-niobium, future benchmarks and sets the record straight with regards to REE processing. You don't want to miss this... Discussing the catalyst that helped launch the movement in Alkane's stock price, Chalmers states: "The market itself is starting to change and starting to evolve. It's gone over the trough of the depression that we've all been through and we're starting to come out of that. We've added a couple of new senior staff appointments to the company, namely Chief Operations Officer, Nicholas Earner. Mr. Earner has had a lot of experience running the kind of plant that we're going to be building for the Dubbo Zirconia Project, so that was important. Also very important was the announcement of the joint-venture structure we put in place with Treibacher (Austria's Treibacher Industrie AG). "There are two aspects to what we are," according to Chalmers. "First of all, Alkane is a multi-commodity company, so yes, we have big involvement in the rare metals and rare earths industry, through the Dubbo Project, but we're also a gold company. We're about to go back into production with gold and we'll be producing gold early in the new year. That's two aspects. But the Dubbo Zirconia Project is still the key project in the company. Gold is fine, gold will generate about AUD$40 million a year cash flow for us, but the Dubbo Project is a substantial asset and a substantial project. It's a project that's quite different compared to most others, in the sense that it will produce zirconium, niobium, a light rare-earth concentrate, a heavy rare-earth concentrate and it's very advanced. That probably differentiates Alkane Resources somewhat." When discussing benchmarks for the remainder of 2013, Chalmers commented: "We're looking forward to a number of benchmarks, namely getting our Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Dubbo which will be a very big step for us. We'll have other benchmarks with our gold project; the construction is well advanced and nearing completion. But with Dubbo, particularly next year, will be about getting the EIS approved -- somewhere around May or June 2014, and putting all the funding in place around the same time. Then we'll be pushing the button, ready to go, sometime in the second half of the year. A lot of big things happening." Tracy addresses the discussion (incorrect commentary) on InvestorIntel regarding Alkane's proposed processing facility and what the company has planned for processing. "As a leader in this industry, Ian, I'd like you to set the record straight." "Thank you, Tracy, and thank you for the opportunity. I do follow what Jack Lifton and Dudley Kingsnorth have said and I've read the commentary and there were some comments like: 'Alkane has done its process testing on a laboratory scale, but hasn't proved it' or that we've struggled with the demonstration plant or the pilot plant... and I really do need to set the record straight. That pilot plant has been running now for five years. We have no issues in producing a high-quality zirconium product or a high-quality niobium product. We produce a 99% light rare-earth oxide concentrate and we produce a 95% heavy rare-earth concentrate. The two rare earths have a deal in place with Shin-Etsu (Editor: Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. Ltd. is the largest chemical company in Japan and is ranked No. 9 in Forbes Global 2000 for the chemical sector) that will take those two concentrates and do all the separations on them. If we had a problem with processing, I must admit I'm lost to say where that problem is because we've been doing it now (successfully) for a number of years." Disclaimer: Alkane Resources Ltd. is an advertorial member of InvestorIntel.

• published: 04 Sep 2013
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