American Manganese, Incorporated, a Canadian company, has a variety of properties they are focused on bringing to market, to assist in a variety of industrial applications including the steel industry and auto industry. Currently, the company is focused on their Artillery Peak Manganese Properties in Arizona.
Larry Reaugh, President and CEO of American Manganese, Inc. at the World Resource Conference in Vancouver
American Manganese is moving forward aggressively to develop the Artillery Peak deposit they have just acquired. According to Larry Reaugh, President and CEO of American Manganese, Inc., “It's an exciting time. We've completed about 34,800 feet of drilling in 86 holes.” In addition to the drill program, American Manganese has hired a company to take it to the next level. Reaugh said, “We have Wardrop doing the prefeasibility study and we should have that by early October, and the pilot plant testing is being done by Kemetco and we expect that in September.”
The need for manganese has been highlighted in the news recently with the focus on energy efficient cars. Their batteries, and the batteries of many other tools, rely heavily on the use of manganese.
Reaugh said, “Batteries for electric cars have become an issue and it turns out that we can make one or both of the products that are in demand. Currently, we envision an electro-manganese metal which will be in very short supply. China controls 98.5% of that.” American Manganese believes that having a North American company with access to manganese will be of benefit to the market as a whole. Said Reaugh, “American Manganese can also provide electrolytic manganese dioxide (EMD) for the battery industry, a 270,000 tonne/year market. Not only is it needed for electric car batteries, EMD is also used in lithium batteries as well. “Lithium manganese batteries are roughly 15% of the market already,” said Reaugh, when speaking about cordless tools manufactured by companies such as Milwaukee Tool. Using manganese in their battery composition has had a profound effect on the efficiency and effectiveness of their battery life. According to Reaugh, “The use of manganese reduces the battery weight by 50% and doubles the life of the charge.”
Because of these new applications and additional attention on critical metals by the US government, American Manganese has a lot to be positive about. Said Reaugh, “There is a lot of excitement going on. The Senate committee that is recommending that something be done to help areas of rare metals in the US. If we can get production permitting streamlined, we might be able to get going before 2014.”
Currently, American Manganese's deposit is being tested aggressively. Reaugh said, “We're in prefeasibility and that will roll over into feasibility. The pilot plant testing is a continuous process to produce the concentrate. That will be happening in August.” Once the pilot plant is operating, American Manganese will begin additional design work on a full-scale plant. Said Reaugh, “We are going to scale up the pilot plant to full plant size that will process 3500 tons per day.” While they are currently in prefeasibility, American Manganese will quickly move into more substantive areas of testing by completing a feasibility study and working through a full-scale pilot plant test.
In terms of financials, American Manganese feels they are in good shape for the near term. According to Reaugh, “The company has about 87 million shares outstanding. It's trading at about $.60 per share. Fully diluted there are 130 million shares outstanding.” Money they have raised has gone right into the exploration and development of their manganese-based properties. Said Reaugh, “The interesting thing is that our money was well spent. We've developed a project that contains 6.7 million pounds indicated and 8.9 million pounds inferred and multiply that by $1.80 and you get a big number.” With a large resource that is in high demand, it seems that there is upside on the horizon for American Manganese.
Given those figures, investors may be interested in American Manganese. When asked why investors might be interested in American Manganese, Reaugh said, “First off, it is a project that is in the critical metals arena. There is no substitution for that. The initial 43-101 economic evaluation gives very robust returns. Low production costs of $0.44/lb. equates to very little risk. It looks like we are going to be the lowest cost producer in the world. It also gives you a window on the factory industry. We are going to take lithium and combine it with manganese for the battery industry which will increase the value of our product.” Reaugh believes all of these factors make American Manganese attractive to investors.
With a valuable resource located in a mining friendly jurisdiction, American Manganese is well positioned to move their Artillery Park property forward into production. Knowing that manganese is now considered a critical metal by the government will do nothing but assist American Manganese in creating value for their company and for shareholders.
