American Manganese Inc. (TSX: V.AMY, Stock Forum) has received the US Patent No. 8460681 from the United States Patent and Trade Mark Office for the company's manganese recovery process.
According to the American Manganese press release, this patent is now secured as a key asset that can be exclusively capitalized.
The invention is a technical break-through as it enables the recovery of manganese from a low grade resource with significantly less energy and environmental impact than conventional processing methods.
The U.S. Bureau of mines developed the frame work of the process from the 1940's to 1980 but they were never able to make it economically viable. Kemetco Research Inc., a privately owned contract research and development company, successfully completed the process to demonstrate it can complete with other electrolytic manganese metal (EMM) and electrolytic manganese dioxide (EMD) producers in the lower percentile of costs for producers anywhere in the world.
The company is applying to register the patent in other countries which may be able to adopt American Manganese's process on contract from the company.
There is no substitute for manganese in steel (total manganese market greater than 33 billion pounds per year, fourth largest traded metal).
American Manganese is a diversified specialty and critical metal company focusing on potentially becoming a producer.
On Tuesday, American Manganese soared 50% and was trading at $0.03 a share. The company had a market cap of $3.3 million, based on 111.2 million shares outstanding.