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<br />1 <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />1 <br /> <br /> <br />1 <br />1 <br />1 <br /> <br />1 <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />Much talk has been centered around the use of monzonite as a <br />reagent. I feel it necessary to give the Board a little history as to how this <br />came about. <br />In 1985, while working in the Pine Forest Range, on the edge of the <br />Black Rock: Desert, in north-central Nevada, I undertook a project that <br />required the flotation of copper gold-sulfides. The immediate problem that <br />•~rras most apparent was the lack of water in the great distances we had to <br />truck it to support a flotation mill. It is common knowledge in the mining <br />industry that it is not feasible to recycle mill water. This is due to the fact <br />that the reagents in the water will sour the circuit. Having had some <br />experience with flotation circuits myself, I hired Howard Harris, a <br />metallurgist out of Winnemucca, Nevada. Mr. Harris had a great deal of <br />experience in operating flotation mills and had passed the information on to <br />me. At the beginning of World War II, while working at a mine known as the <br />Housesound, in the state of Washington, reagents for operating a flotation <br />mill became very scarce. At that tame, their metallurgist warked out a flow <br />chart that would allow them to recycle their water and reagents without <br />souring the circuit. Mr. Harris was then a young man working in the lab, and <br />thought he could duplicate the process that was used. Some of the process <br />was known by everyone, but most of the technique employed was known by <br />a few, but he was not among them. After a lot of trial and error, we finally <br />developed a technique that after 200 repeated uses of the same water, the <br />circuit would not sour, and our logs indicated a 75~ savings in reagents, <br />along with a consistent recovery. <br />Approximately 2 years ago, I was approached by my sister, Gwen <br />Fraser, and her attorney, Jim Munn, with the possibility of operating the Gold <br />Hill mill on their behalf. Among the other problems they said I would <br />encounter could be a dispute as to the use of the tailings pond and a <br />adequate supply of water. I informed them that I didn't think this would be <br />a problem, that I had a method by which I could operate this mill and <br />manage its water system and tailings disposal all within the four wails of the <br />mill building. <br />Prior to Homestate entering into a purchase agreement with <br />Energetics, a sample of the Bueno ore was shipped to Mr. Harris's lab in <br />Winnemucca, Nevada. There he worked out a flow sheet on the recycling of <br />our water and reagents. The test proved to be positive. We were given a <br />choice of 3 reagents to use: untreated lime, dolomite, and monzonite. Due to <br />the high iron content and the low silica content of the Bueno ore, Mr. Harris's <br />first choice was monzonite. I first contacted a lime company in Wyoming for <br />the purchase of dolomite, which we had intended to run in accordance with <br />Mr. Harris's flow sheet. Exhibit L <br />Last fall, Norm Frank and myself were invited by Tom Hendricks W <br />view his property in Caribou, Colorado. During the tour, Mr. Frank asked Mr. <br />1 <br />