Yet More o’ Borealis May 8, 2007March 6, 2017 I have clearly lost all perspective. It’s gotten to the point that – as much as I’d like the millions (oh, baby!) – my Number One goal for Borealis is to be able to say to the rocket scientist friend who taunts me and pooh-poohs each new development (‘The plane moved? With enough gearing, an ant could move the plane – it is a scam.‘) . . . ‘HA!’ That’s what I want to say to him: ‘HA!’ I live for the day. ‘HA!’ Clearly, this is no way to run your finances, which is why you must bet on Borealis only with money you can truly afford to lose. IRON ORE So according to this press release a couple of weeks ago, Borealis subsidiary Roche Bay’s joint venture partner Advanced Explorations has scraped together some cash to continue work up North evaluating our prospects. It goes on to say: Recent (2006) metallurgical studies by SGS Lakefield from core samples collected in 2006 and historical core from the property corroborated earlier studies that consistently found that upgrading of the iron content was achieved by grinding and magnetic separation alone. The iron content of the concentrates produced varied between 66% and 71%. It was also shown that dry magnetic separation of a crushed product can lead to upgrading the feed material to 40% iron, while recovering 99% of magnetic iron in the feed material. The studies also found that the vast majority of deleterious elements reported to the tailings, resulting in a clean, high quality concentrate. The only exception was sulphides, but during pelletising tests conducted in the past, the sulphur content came down to 0.01%. The Bond ball mill work index was found to be between 6 and 9 kWh/ton. Paul Palmer P. Geo, P.Eng of Golder Associates is the QP within the meaning of 43-101. The geologic information within this release is extracted from a qualifying report filed on Sedar and coauthored by the QP. The content of this release has been reviewed by the QP who approves the content of this release. ☞ I know as little about iron ore as I do about dredging (see yesterday’s disquisition), but I have learned that ‘Sedar’ is the Canadian equivalent of our S.E.C.’s ‘Edgar,’ and that a ‘QP’ is a ‘Qualified Person,’ which is a professional designation harder to come by than, say, a beautician’s license. Click here for the definition. Meanwhile, last week Advanced Explorations announced what appears to be a hoped for May 16 closing of their financing agreement, going on to say that: An exploration camp has been established on site and two drills and crews are expected to be mobilized in the near future. The Company anticipates completing sufficient drilling in the next 4 months to generate an updated resource calculation. Historical work undertaken on the property was not to NI 43-101 standards and no resource could be stated from the previous work. ☞ All I’m saying is that this is an awful lot of trouble to go to – and cold! Oh, my God it must be cold! (and there are polar bears) – if someone, including a Q.P., didn’t think there were potential here. WHEEL TUG And then there is the Wheel Tug subsidiary of the Chorus Motors subsidiary. I know I posted the Wheel Tug press release about its agreement with Delta Airlines, but in case I forgot to, here is Delta’s own version: “Certainly we expect this to be a ‘win’ for us on the business side by reducing our costs, but we’re also excited about the potential for removing some complexity from gate operations for our ground personnel and doing it in an environmentally friendly fashion,” said Walt Klein, Delta’s director of Quality, Engineering and Training. Full development and approval of the system is expected sometime in 2009 and Delta, as WheelTug’s launch customer, could begin installing the system on its fleet of B-737NG aircraft as early as late 2009. The WheelTug system includes powerful electric motors in the airplane’s nose wheel that will enable pilots to back away from gates without a tow tug and then taxi to their takeoff, or a remote start point before starting the airplane’s engines. After landing, the pilot can turn off the jet engines and use the system to drive the airplane to its gate. ☞ You can inspect a WheelTug patent here, but of far more interest to the lay reader (well, me) is this Powerpoint presentation to a conference of landing gear engineers last week. Not that I understand the engineering – but I sure understand the projected annual savings of $1 million or more per retrofitted aircraft, and the environmental benefits. So if WheelTug earned a royalty of $50,000 a year – 5% of the projected savings – on, say, 5,000 jets, that would be $250 million a year, pre-tax . . . which ain’t hay to a company whose present market cap is $50 million. (The savings are fun to imagine. There’s the fuel, of course, and the tow trucks. But all kinds of other things you wouldn’t think of at first. Such as that the pilot could turn on his WheelTug motor to get his wheels spinning rapidly as he’s about to land – so instead of that rubber-burning jolt you feel when giant, expensive tires have to go from zero to 200mph in an instant, you’d land smoothly, with the wheels already turning.) My rocket-scientist friend may certainly prove right, which is why this is a speculation. And neither the iron ore nor the motor is likely to start gushing actual cash – if either ever does – until 2010 at the earliest. Maybe the motors will prove unreliable. Maybe the Canadians will find endangered species living on our iron ore. But we’ve certainly made progress. Here are some excerpts from the company’s (admittedly wacky) weekly investor email: ********************************** WheelTug plc We have had a great conference, making contact with the relevant companies, and some very impressive and experienced engineers. There was a session on towbarless towing (which usually means tugs that lift and carry the front gear instead of pushing and pulling with a towbar), and the speaker of that session asked us to present WheelTug. He gave us his whole time, and we used it – all 90 minutes. The room was standing-room only, and most people there asked at least one question. The Powerpoint show we delivered will be posted on the SAE web site. . . . We continue to add to our staff. . . . This week we welcome on-board experts in FAA certification and airport operations. . . . The first of many WheelTug patents has been issued, and is available on our web page. ************************ Power Chips plc, Cool Chips plc, Avto Metals plc As reported, a recent modification of deposition conditions of Avto Metals yielded a 3x increase in reduction of Electron Volt Work Function over previous work. In absolute numbers we saw about a 30% reduction in eV, which is huge news. This has to be confirmed and confirmed again, though this is very exciting news. The wafers from the second manufacturing round from our European foundry have arrived. We made a few improvements to the mask and deposition process, expecting some improvement in Avto effect. We will attempt to replicate the recent findings on Avto Metals deposition condition on these new wafers. Sourcing of wafers for “Round 3” has commenced but we don’t have a firm delivery date yet. We expect a much larger Avto effect from “Round 3”. The latest tests are beginning to verge on commercial results and there is actually a possibility that “Round 3” can give us commercial results. This is almost too much to hope for, but it is a real possibility. We continue to have discussions world-wide regarding funding. [. . .] Our general research and patenting work continues apace. We are working on fundamental additional scientific breakthroughs in several fields which we are patenting. These are truly exciting times. Please pray for Gogita. Chana B. Cox [the chairman’s wife] has just completed another book, “Reflections on the Logic of the Good”. This is another super read. This book and “Liberty, God’s gift to Humanity” are both very basic political theory. Please look at www.religiousliberalism.org. This is a great show done by Rebecca Becker on the “Liberty” book. It is a marvelous visual presentation. “Liberty, God’s Gift to Humanity”, by Chana B. Cox is a spectacular read. Tonight is the 31th night of the Omer. Lag B’Omer is Sunday. We are planning on building great bonfires. Good Shabbos. And to you.