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• <br />Ned Banta: <br />As far as the pilot program is concerned, if your methodology works and looks like it's going <br />to expand, how far would all well fields expand? I mean, is the size substantial relative to <br />that dot on the map? <br />Roger Day: <br />The minimum commercial recovery from those cavities needs to be up around 70,000 tons <br />per cavity. If the 50,000- tons - per -year pilot operation warrants expansion to commercial, we <br />will invest additional money to construct a 75,000 tpy facility. This is a minimum <br />commercial size plant. So, a minimum commercial sized cavity is roughly one year <br />production for the minimum commercial facility. My personal expectations for recovery <br />from those wells are much greater than those 70,000 tons. If we can achieve the recoveries <br />that seem possible from those cavities, those six cavities may run the 75,000- tons - per -year <br />plan for the better part of 30 years. So, we do not anticipate a huge well field. <br />Jerry Daub: <br />That gets back to the experimental nature of the whole project. Proving that the theory will <br />work —being able to produce over such a significant stratigraphic interval. <br />Roger Day: <br />The competitor permitting right now will be within five or six miles. They're planning <br />1.4 million tons per year. Our mining plans range from 50,000 to 150,000 tons per year. <br />Everything is just that much smaller and compact. <br />Harry Posey: <br />What is that you need to prove —other than the economics? <br />Roger Day: <br />There are a number of issues. We recently put a cover letter on our UIC application <br />explaining the experimental nature and I think we could make copies of this. It is a serious <br />hurdle. We believe that credible mining experts will look at what has been accomplished to <br />date in mining the tall vertical cavities and say that it is not a proven technology. Shell Oil, <br />back in the 1970s, demonstrated the potential for this mining method to work. They went <br />down and used an under reamer to cut a mechanical hole with a diameter of a couple of feet <br />over the entire 130 -ft vertical section. Then they mined the radius by several feet outward, <br />by solution mining in the 300F temperature range. Then they poured on the steam. It got so <br />hot that they retorted the oil shale simultaneously with solution mining to enlarge and <br />expanded it to the 30 -ft diameter range. Their focus was retorting oilshale. The retorting <br />phase was the primary temperature that they made most of the actual growth of their cavity. <br />So, they added a few feet of radius that demonstrated 300F solution mining potential without <br />retorting oilshale. <br />American Soda is up there with their pilot work right now. And basically they've done the <br />same thing as Shell Oil. They drilled a hole. They started circulating hot water. And those <br />of us standing on top of the hill observing don't know anything more than the public knows <br />about their operation. But, they've got ponds there and they're running injection wells. If <br />you add up how much they likely have mined to -date, they have added a few feet to the <br />diameter of the well bore. The only credible conclusion I can draw from observing their <br />3 <br />