Iofina Share Discussion Threads

[monty panesar] 15/6/2014 21:04

Ok so they are making sure they will walk before they run. That's prudent business management.

[engelo] 15/6/2014 20:57

sandag 22085: tour/tower: simply due to the US inability to pronounce French words correctly. Same with route. One of my favourites croissant = croyzaarnt.

[1madmarky] 15/6/2014 20:31

The overriding impression that I got from Lance is that there would be no new plant builds unless he already had a customer for the additional iodine. The direction at the moment is to maximise profitable production at existing plants. This is not the same as producing as much as you can. His focus is on the bottom line. Aimho

[engelo] 15/6/2014 19:41

Mister B: depending entirely on SG's extensive reports, all news from Chile is negative (for them!)

Try SG's posts 21520, 21939, 22041.

[monty panesar] 15/6/2014 18:25

Thaks for feedback from the AGM. Really useful. One thing I found interesting is that they let slip they have already built the bases for 2 new plants.
Seems they have slipped back into the old mould of keeping a few things up their sleeve which is good.
Did they say whether IO7 would be complete this year?

[mister big] 15/6/2014 18:06

Super g
I was reviewing some very interesting papers on lithium iodide batteries and applications - could you send me what you have on it - also a summary of latest state of play in chile .
Thanks ( if you have time !)
Best Arron

[woodpeckers] 15/6/2014 17:17

Well done bobby! Must start looking in here more often! Of course you realise you have a reputation to live up to now...... ;-)

[bobbyshilling] 15/6/2014 14:15

Thanks sg, appreciated.

[sandbag] 14/6/2014 18:38

Confused! I once asked a Texan oilman's wife if he was home and was told he was on the back tower. I asked where that was and she laughed. Apparently in the oilfield the back tower is the late (or afternoon shift). Probably came from tour as in tour of duty.

[madchick] 14/6/2014 16:34

Blimey, engelo, no wonder we get confused!

[engelo] 14/6/2014 16:22

1mad agree minis will need absorption/desorption towers for iof's chemical process to work.Think there I s some confusion with crystallisation 'towers' as iof call them which aren't really towers at all :-)

[bazzerp] 14/6/2014 14:31

Interesting articles SG. For those like me wondering what "slickwater" is from Wiki -

Two methods of transporting the proppant in the fluid are used – high-rate and high-viscosity. High-viscosity fracturing tends to cause large dominant fractures, while high-rate (slickwater) fracturing causes small spread-out micro-fractures.

[superg1] 14/6/2014 14:00

Slickwater

recent results for one look very good



and another

•Plans to complete over 20% of its wells during the second half of 2014 with slickwater, due to encouraging early production uplift of more than 25% in the areas tested and analyzed.




So it seems the water is to stay in equal or higher volumes, my guess is that many will re-work old wells on the new methods going forward.

[1madmarky] 14/6/2014 12:22

The picture we saw during the presentation of the mobile unit certainly looked like it had two mini towers. I assumed that you would have to have some form of tower in order to use the blow out method. Hopefully we'll get to see pics soon.

[superg1] 14/6/2014 12:13

Water

A rumour around now that an application will appear in ND at some point, we'll wait and see.

While looking at who is doing what and where, I cane across one planning on doing freshwater pipelines going forward in the Bakken area.

Then I noticed they mention they will be going for slickwater for 20% of wells this year.

Slickwater?

Well it contains new types of chemicals and biocides.

Bad news or not ??

Well the balcony had us believe gas fracking would replace water..... really...

Slickwater has another name

High-Volume (Slick-water) Hydraulic Fracturing .

I've have only just spotted it but for example on one report saw 6 mill to 8 mill gallons of water per well, or 150k to 190k barrels of water. That's 2 to 4 times what is used on some wells now.

So it looks like slickwater fracking is on it's way as the new 'thing' in fracking to get better results.

I'll have a dig later.

[superg1] 14/6/2014 09:08

So in other words of course they will work, they wouldn't putting them in if they didn't. It's not about plants it's the chemical process that is key and they have mastered that.

In fact as in the rns, they think they have come up with less chemicals needed and have tests going at io1 at the moment with confidence high. Not that they need the a new process but it gets costs down.

Pods it said could be left unmanned. That leaves power and chemicals as the fixed cost. I would imagine unmanned iodine production units, will be a first for the industry.

[superg1] 14/6/2014 09:03

Re

Hi Bobsworth
I understand your concern about whether or not the mobiles actually work but rest assured they do.

That's the same cycle we went through wondering whether big plants worked. If anyone recalls I did ask about the tech, and it smaller scale iosorb that led to the big plants.

It's not the plants that are the trick, it is the chemical processes that IOF have developed.

To quote

We could give others the blueprints to the plants but they would not be able to produce iodine in the way we do.

The original mobiles were trailer mounted, now we call them pods. Basically it seems mobile is no longer a good word, but moveable would be.

I think trailer mounted were the first thought but they quickly moved to the idea of 10k pods which can be dropped in out as and when the economics change.

EG we here io4 has up to a max of 20k in recent times, so they would out 2 pods, rather than guess at future rates and out a 30k permanent plant in.

Pods remove the need for towers it would seem, and the crystallization process can be used at main plants for whatever the pods produce.

I recall LB saying at the AGM that the crystal process has spare capacity at the main plants.

Hopefully some photo's will appear, they had some I believe in the presentation.

[engelo] 14/6/2014 08:56

Could be that the electricity costs are quite low. We know the generator cost for a main plant ($ 150k pm? Thanks George) guessing $15k pm as much smaller and less equipment to run and no crystallisation.Anyone have a more educated view on this?

[naphar] 14/6/2014 08:22

Sandbag
nice guess, but Lance told us they already have the pads and electric hook ups in for the first two mobiles.

[sandbag] 13/6/2014 23:47

naphar,

"They will only be able to move them somewhere the pads and electric are already in place I believe"

I'm only surmising but if they were skid mounted units they could be dropped off on any terrain and if more than one they could be hooked up together. They could be diesel operated which means once, twice or whatever each day they could be fuelled up by bowser.

crosseyed,

Any chemical work could be done at the same time as re-fuelling.

edit:
By use of the word mobile most people think of a lorry mounted unit but skid mounted units can be mobile, i.e. picked up and dropped off by truck, and several of them can be hooked up together creating a sizeable plant. I stress that I am only guessing here.

[naphar] 13/6/2014 23:03

Cross
I think the point is they don't need to be manned round the clock. There was lots of automation included on the newer IOs and I imagine the mobiles will also be largely automated. Manpower can then come from the IOs to do any manual tasks as needed.

[crosseyed] 13/6/2014 22:57

So how can these mini-IOSorb units operate with no manpower (other than to check that they are operating to plan, as sg mentioned, which is already a manpower requirement) when there are obvious needs such as feeding in the chemicals required and actually transporting the produce, in whatever form that is, presumably liquids, for the final stage of producing crystallised iodine at a nearby fully-equipped IOSorb plant?

I do not doubt the process but it seems that some of the costs are being discounted.

c

[naphar] 13/6/2014 22:39

What they are actually planning to do, is use existing kit me for the air stripping industry, with modifications to use the iof IOSORB process.

[bobsworth] 13/6/2014 21:55

Thanks for that reassurance Monts12 & 1MadMarky. Knowing there is a lot riding on the new mobiles being a success its good to hear they have designed them on the old models and existing technology that we know works. Liked the bit about them using existing parts commonly used in the oil industry.

[monts12] 13/6/2014 21:43

That thought had crossed my mind Naphar but their ability to be moved around easily and as required was emphasised more than once. I'm not sure how though.