Hello Fishercat.

I’m only a casual observer of Argex. It’s been a long time since I even casually crunched its numbers. Years ago, when I did, I took note of the fact that our property holdings were something in the order of being ten times or more impressive than there’s.

So far as properties, nothing lately has caught my attention, that would cause me to change my earlier (admittedly sketchy) impression. Looking strictly at what lately has changed with Fancamp (leaving Argex aside), it would be uncommon (to put it mildly) for any other mineral resource company to double its holdings of proven world-class mineral resources, such as we did with Magpie (and have Champion pay for it). And that’s not counting the several very interesting speculative properties, south of the St. Lawrence, we also acquired in the meantime.

Naturally, as is the case with most of us here, my primary interest is the value of mineral resources. So, number one, Argex doesn’t interest me all that much (other than the NSRs and shares we own). The sizzle (especially, such as there was earlier) is cooling down because, upon calm-and-collected examination, there are no hard assets to keep fueling any continuing hot excitement, which (according to my earlier investigation) was almost entirely due to the company’s two very speculative assets, (1) the value of its production plans and (2) the value of its proprietary production technology:

Speculative Asset #1) The value of Argex’s Production Plans. The annoying question is, whether or not there ever will be a product to sell. Unlike Fancamp, Argex’s production plans—with outside financing—include picking up its own shovels and starting the very expensive work on its own. So far as I’m concerned—and (now likely) concerning more and more others—the question is, “When will the money materialize?” Argex announced deal-after-deal for selling the finished product. But, “How far will that get anybody, without the money to get to the point where there’s a finished product to ship?” In other words (off the top of my head), Argex has a money problem. The most fantastic and ingenious and breath-taking plans in the world will get you nowhere, without the money in the bank to get the ball rolling.

Speculative Asset #2) The value of Argex’s Proprietary Technology. I’m not a scientist. I cannot even guess the value in dollars; and I doubt there are many who can (least of all the stockbrokers who are paid to sell the shares). Again, I certainly do not know how high the true market is for the proprietary technology. For all I know, there very well could be juicy steak, which caused the stock to sizzle (in the first place). It all hinges on your confidence and belief in the five inventors of the patented technology, They are employed by an apparently sizable private company, Process Research Ortech. In my mind, the monetary return of owning Argex shares, in the final analysis, greatly depends on two things: (1) “Truly, how great are the five masterminds at Ortech who developed the technology?” and (2) “How much money are Titanium production companies willing to pay for the Argex scientific prototypes built according to expertise of the Ortech scientists?”

http://brevets-patents.ic.gc.ca/opic-cipo/cpd/eng/patent/2513309/summary.html?query=ramamritham+and+sridhar&start=1&num=50&type=basic_search

Of course, as you well know—and as a point of comparison—Fancamp has its own scientific prototypes, which were developed for us by SGS and CORUM. For the past three and a half years, all our Press Releases, on the subject, report an unbroken series of successful metallurgical-purification tests. The possibilities of our own Titanium processing technology have intrigued me since April 2012, when I first read about it.

http://agoracom.com/ir/Fancamp/forums/discussion/topics/616153-part-ii-changes-afoot-in-titanium-pigment-industry/messages/1930820

As I said in my earliest message, especially when it comes to SGS (more than CORUM), in effect, we’ve employed a gigantic public company — with gigantic world-class facilities — to develop our “successfully” tested and retested technology. Who knows? It might even be better than what they did at Ortech for Argex.

http://www.sgs.com/en/Mining/Metallurgy-and-Process-Design.aspx