Iofina

• 25/05/12

  Final Results

• 25/05/12

  Placing to raise ?4.3 million

• 19/04/12

  Appointment of Investec as Nomad and Sole Broker

• 10/04/12

  Holding(s) in Company

• 05/04/12

  Purchase of Production Site & Recycling Initiative

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  25/05/12

  Iofina raises £4.3 mln to support scaling-up of iodine production

  The iodine producer is raising £4.3 million to  support a scale up in its operations. Separately the group reported record sales in 2011 which allowed the company to halve losses.

   

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  17/04/12

  Iofina eyes purple patch after first dual-stream deal

  Investors are certainly expecting big things with the share price almost doubling since the start of 2012, but management are upbeat as well.

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  09/08/11

  Iofina upbeat on iodine prices after good first half

  Iofina, the iodine and natural gas explorer and producer, revealed a good first half performance, with revenues for the period ahead of last time. It also declared it has been cash flow positive since April and struck an upbeat note on outlook, saying it expects iodine prices to remain robust. 

  
  

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  22/06/08

  Iofina - Gas, but with a twist

  Iofina is developing the Atlantis Project in northern Montana. As well as substantial amounts of gas, the area could also produce 4% of the world's iodine supply.

• 05/04/12

  Iofina acquires mid-stream production site, enters iodine recycling business

• 19/03/12

  Iofina upbeat on prospects for the iodine prices and its mid-stream business

• 16/08/11

  Iofina ‘s shares worth 40 pence each, says Ambrian Partners

• 09/08/11

  Iofina upbeat on outlook after good first half

• 08/06/11

  Afferro Mining and Iofina appoint joint brokers

Iofina plc is the holding company of a group of companies involved in the exploration and production of iodine and natural gas which has been discovered on acreages that the Group has acquired and is currently acquiring. Iofina is fully vertically integrated into specialty chemical manufacturing through its wholly owned subsidiary Iofina Chemical.

ABOUT IODINE

Iodine is a shiny, blue-black, solid element, which derives its name from the Greek word ‘iodes’ which means ‘violet’ in reference to its colour. It has an atomic number of 53 and forms one of the halogen group of elements, of which it is the least reactive.

Iodine is essential to many forms of life, including human, and is found in thyroid hormones. A lack of iodine in the human body results in a condition known as ‘goitre’ in which the thyroid gland in the neck becomes enlarged. In order to assure an adequate amount of iodine in the diet, table salt is routinely iodized. Iodine is also used as the core commodity in a wide variety of products and in many cases there is no substitute

Sources

Iodine is primarily obtained as a by-product with nitrate minerals that are associated with caliche deposits in places such as the Atacama Desert of Chile. It is present in seawater, which contains about 0.05 ppm iodine, meaning that there are approximately 35 million metric tons of iodine in the world’s oceans, but extraction is impractical at these low concentrations. Iodine was first isolated from seaweed, and dried seaweeds, (particularly those of the Liminaria family) contain as much as 0.45 per cent. iodine. Prior to 1959, seaweed was a major source of iodine and it remains a significant source for iodine in the diets of many people around the world.

Iodine is also retrieved from underground brines (formation waters containing many dissolved salts and ions) which are associated with natural gas and oil deposits as in Japan and the USA. However, production from caliche, as in Chile, is currently the most important and lowest cost source of the element.

Iodine is currently produced in nine countries, with output concentrated in Chile, Japan and the USA. Chilean companies currently control about half of the world’s nominal capacity and account for around 53 per cent. of global production while Japan produces 21 per cent. of the current global supply of iodine. In the USA, which only accounts for 5% of global production, three producers of crude iodine, all operating in Oklahoma, supply about 28 per cent. of domestic demand, with the remainder having to be imported. The supply for iodine has been and continues to be extremely limited.Worldwide Estimated Consumption of Iodine by Region and Country.

For further information on Iodine please click here 

WELLHEAD EXTRACTION TECHNOLOGY

The Group’s WET® technology can quickly and efficiently be deployed to any location and adapt to variations in brine water streams. As a result, Iofina is able to deploy PODs to operational third party oil and gas wells throughout the country, presenting third party producers with a revenue source from waste brine streams.

The Directors believe that the Group’s WET® method will enable it to become one of the world’s leading low cost producers of iodine, and become a significant player in an industry which has been dominated by Chilean and Japanese producers for over 50 years. As far as the Directors are aware, the Group will be the only independent iodine producer in the USA and control the largest currently known reserve in North America.

Existing iodine extraction technologies that extract iodine rely on the incoming brine stream’s pH being carefully controlled, by large volumes of acid and base which are added at various stages in the process. This is costly in terms of both operating and capital expenditure. The WET® method employs two different iodine extraction methods depending on brine chemistry and temperature for optimal efficiency. The first technology for cold brine streams is a chemical-based method using an anion exchange resin, to which the iodine anions are attracted and this method can also be based on a “physical system” for separating out iodine molecules in a physical trap using carbon. The second method is called the WET® IOsorb™ method and is used on higher temperature brine streams which may include oil and other impurities. What distinguishes both technologies from other processes is that the incoming brine stream only has to undergo minor pre-treatment for effective extraction. Either method can create elemental iodine or sodium iodide depending the iodine derivative that is desired to be manufactured. Being able to directly convert the iodine into a chosen molecular form can enable Iofina to reduce costs by skipping certain synthesis steps, as well as avoid certain hazardous processing steps.

The mobile WET® units are mounted in a standard trailer that can be rapidly deployed to locations using an articulated truck. The self-contained WET® units is key to Iofina’s ability to extract third party brine streams in a rapid and highly cost effective manner that has not previously been available in the iodine industry. Iofina has a series of patents pending relating to its technology for capturing iodine from iodine-rich brine from wells and converting it into a range of iodine molecules.

For further information about WET® technology please click here

IOFINA CHEMICAL

Iofina Chemical, Inc., based in Covington, KY., is a division of Iofina plc. Iofina Chemical is a technology-based company serving various industries with select halogen specialty chemicals. As technology leaders in iodine the company manufactures iodine-based antiseptic and antimicrobial products for use in agriculture, cleaning and disinfection as well as preservatives for paints, coatings and lumber products. In addition to the products above it also manufactures chlorine and fluorine-based products, along with its iodine products, for use in odor control, pharmaceutical and electronics manufacturing, food and beverage sanitization, dairy cow hygiene, and specialty chemical manufacturing.

For further informtion on Iofina Chemical Products please click here

NATURAL GAS

The natural gas industry provides one of the cleanest burning alternative energy fuels. The United States has vast resources of natural gas available for extraction. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that there are 2,119 Trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of technically recoverable natural gas resources in the United States. Most of the natural gas that is found in North America is concentrated in relatively distinct geographical areas, or basins.

To read more about natural gas please Click Here.

The Atlantis Field

The Group’s Atlantis Prospect is located between two of the most significant biogenic gas fields in North America, which have so far produced a total of 6.5 Tcf, valued at over US$50 billion at current prices. Since its incorporation the Group has steadily acquired over c.290,000 net acre land position in northern Montana, on which a major aquifer containing natural gas has been discovered in the Eagle and Virgelle formations, sedimentary formations of Cretaceous age lying at depths of 1,000 to 1,500 ft below the surface. This unconventional, shallow natural gas resource can only be produced in conjunction with large volumes of formation water, and consequently the industry has previously struggled to commercialise gas discoveries in the area. The formation water is an unusual sodium chloride brine with high concentrations of iodide but relatively low levels of dissolved salts (approximately 6,500 mg/L), and has no contaminants or hydrocarbons other than methane, thereby reducing processing costs. Iofina intends to produce gas along with water, but to also extract the high levels of iodine which the formation water contains.

For more information on The Atlantis Field please click here.

Dr. Chris E. Fay CBE, Non-Executive Chairman, PhD. BSc, C.Eng, FREng, FRSE, FICE & FEI

Dr. Fay is the former Chairman of Expro International Group plc which was sold in late 2008 for £1.8bn to Candover. Dr. Fay is currently a non-executive director of Stena International Sarl, and Brightside Group plc. From 1999-2011 Dr. Fay was a Director, Chairman of the S&SD Committee and a member of the Remuneration and Audit Committees for Anglo-American plc (LSE:AAL, market capitalisation of £35.8 billion). From 1993-1998, Dr. Fay was Chairman and Chief Executive of Shell U.K. Limited, a leading integrated oil, gas and chemical company in the UK with a typical net income of £500 million on a turnover of £9 billion per annum, annual CAPEX of £900 million and 7,000 direct staff. Dr. Fay retired from the Shell Group in February 1999 after 30 years’ service. Dr. Fay was non-executive director of The Weir Group plc 2001-2003, senior non-executive director of BAA plc 1998-2006, during which BAA was sold for £10.3 billion to the Ferrovial Consortium, Chairman of ACBE (Government Advisory Committee on Business and the Environment) 1999-2003 where Dr. Fay championed the launch of the UK’s Emission Trading Scheme in 2002-2003. Educated at Leeds University where he received a BSc and a PhD in civil engineering, Dr. Fay was awarded a CBE in 1999 for services to the gas and oil industry.

Jeffrey P. Ploen, Non-Executive Deputy Chairman

Mr. Ploen is currently a professional private investor. Mr. Ploen served as director of Momentum Biofuels Inc., a biodiesel producer in Houston Texas from 2007-2010. Mr. Ploen is also a former director of Petro Uno, a Columbian oil and gas exploration company. He was the director of finance at Navidec, Inc., now BPZ, Inc (AMEX: BZP; market capitalisation of $307 million), having raised more than $150 million in debt from the IFC (World Bank) and $140 million in equity from institutional investors. Mr. Ploen is the former CEO of Tamaron Corp., Paradigm Holdings, Inc., and Tonga Capital Corp., all of which were sold or merged into substantially larger corporations.

Paul Chase-Gardener, Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee

Mr. Chase-Gardener originally co-founded Brightside Group plc, a leading E insurance direct company, and now serves as Finance Director. Prior, Mr. Chase-Gardener was Chairman of Southern Rock Insurance Company Limited, New Law LLP (Solicitors), and former Chairman and Finance Director of Group Direct LTD. Mr. Chase-Gardener was the former Managing Director and a substantial shareholder of Bladon Group Plc until the successful trade sale to Inghams Travel. Mr. Chase-Gardener qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse in London where he began his career.

Lance J. Baller, Chief Executive Officer and President

Mr. Baller is the former managing partner of Shortline Equity Partners, Inc., a mid-market merger and acquisitions consulting and investment company in the United States. He has actively served on the Board of Directors of companies in Asia and North America as well as serving on investment, audit, corporate governance, compensation and benefits, executive, finance, and on public policy and social responsibility committees while a member of the board of directors. Mr. Baller is also a former vice president of mergers and acquisitions, financing and corporate development at Integrated Biopharma, Inc and prior to this the vice president of the investment banking firm UBS AG and Morgan Stanley. He is the former chairman of NetAds International, Inc. Mr. Baller is on the board of trustees of Giant 5 Mutual Funds and also serves as the chairman of the audit committee and as the audit committee financial expert under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of the United States for Giant 5 Funds.

Forest D. Dorn, CEO and President of Iofina Natural Gas, Inc.

Mr. Dorn brings over thirty (30) years of broad oil and gas experience to Iofina. Prior to Mr. Dorn’s appointment he was a Member/Manger of Avanti Exploration, LLC since 2004. Mr. Dorn began his career with Forest Oil Corporation (NYSE: FST US$3.12 bn cap) as a scout in Midland, Texas in 1977. He later became a landman in Midland, and in 1980 became Assistant Division Manager of the Company’s MAFLA (Mississippi, Alabama and Florida) Division located in Jackson, Mississippi. In 1984 he was appointed Assistant Division Manager of the Company’s Southern Division located in Lafayette, Louisiana. In 1990 he assumed the position in Denver of Division Manager - Onshore Division, and was appointed a Vice President of the Company in 1991, General Business Manager in December 1993, and Senior Vice President of the Gulf Coast Region in 1996, and Senior Vice President Corporate Services in 2000 until his departure in 2004. Mr. Dorn holds a Liberal Arts Degree from the University of Arizona in Tucson where he graduated in 1977.

The Company is aware of the following shareholders holding 3% or more of the issued share capital of the Company:

1. (1) Include 1,200,000 shares held by J Paul Consulting in which Mr. Ploen a non-executive Director of Iofina plc is beneficial owner.
2. (2) Ultimate Investments Corp. owns 9,000,000 shares which Mr. Lance J. Baller, Director, Secretary and CEO of Iofina plc is the sole beneficiary.

Updated from Iofina Website 20.03.2012

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