Alaska Coal-to-Liquid-Fuel Efforts Aided By Prez

(I-Newswire) February 9, 2005 - FAIRBANKS, Alaska -- President Bush's call in his State of the Union address for affordable and "environmentally resposible" energy for America has been hailed as a shot in the arm to efforts to develop liquid fuel from Alaska coal.

The President's remarks came after an old shuttered gold mill near Fairbanks has begun to stir again.

Workers have dusted off the crushing equipment, swept out the engineering and administrative offices and brushed a fresh coat of brown paint on the interior tanks, and yellow and green paint on the railings.

The cleanup at the cobwebbed Grant Gold Mill on the gentle slopes of Ester Dome in central Alaska, 10 miles northwest of here, is part of the effort to convert the mill into a demonstration plant producing liquid fuel from low-grade Alaska coal that could provide a significant answer to the world's oil crisis.

"We're all cleaned up and ready to convert. We have everybody on standby," said Garry Anselmo, CEO of Silverado Gold Mines Ltd., whose subsidiary, Silverado Green Fuel Inc., is moving closer to obtaining the government and private funding to get the project rolling.

The "green fuel" process involves crushing the subbituminous coal, found in enormous quantities in Alaska's Beluga coalfields, into very fine particles that are then pressure-heated to release some of the water. The resulting combustible mixture of particles suspended in water is earmarked for use in industrial boilers and big diesel engines.

And maybe some day in jetliners and automobiles.

"It's very safe, very clean and a low-cost replacement for industrial burning of oil," said Anselmo from his Vancouver-based Silverado offices.

Anselmo said "green fuel" can be made from Alaska coal for $14 an equivalent barrel of oil -- even less, $9 a barrel, from coal in the Wyoming-Montana coal region.

Alaska Gov. Frank H. Murkowski has praised Silverado's "green fuel" potential.

As a U.S. senator two years ago, Murkowski, then-chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, wrote: "[Silverado's low-rank coal-water fuel] could satisfy a considerable portion of the United States energy requirements in an inexpensive, environmentally friendly, and timely manner ... [and] could constitute an important new source of alternative energy for the United States and the world."

The "green fuel" project is running on parallel tracks with Silverado's ongoing gold mining operations.


If successful, Anselmo said Silverado would build a commercial plant in the Beluga region, where coal deposits are estimated at 2 billion tons. There is another billion or more tons near Healy, deeper in the interior of the state.

Silverado is also exploring the coal found in the Powder River Basin in southern Montana and Wyoming to produce the alternative fuel, and has begun talks with congressional officials from those states.

Silverado's Grant Gold Mill, which recovered 15,305 ounces of gold and 8,231 ounces of silver in the 1980s, is considered an ideal location for the demonstration plant because a lot of the equipment in the half-dozen buildings can be used in the production of "green fuel."

As a result, the plant could be converted quickly and cost-effectively, according to Silverado.

The facility would also serve as a training center.
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Company: Silverado Gold Mines, Ltd.
Garry Anselmo, CEO
Company Address: 1111 Georgia St., West
Vancouver, British Columia
V6E-4M3
Company Details: Phone, 604-689-1535

Company Contact Information
Alex Michelini Public Relations/Alex Michelini