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Date: 09/10/01 at 11:34 AM
Posted by: Tim Worstall
E-mail: tcw@2xtreme.net
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In Reply to: Re: Hello, and welcome! posted by Tim Boole on 09/07/01 at 1:23 PM:
Ashurst.....what an interesting company.
As far as scandium is concerned Ashurst did two things.
They took some of the Russian research into Al\ Sc alloys and commercialised it....they also got some patents on uses of Al\ Sc alloys.The baseball bats and bike frames from Easton, Lacrosse sticks from STX and such like came from their activities. Nothing wrong with their research . Many of the other sporting uses are from people following that lead.
They also tried to extract scandium from the Zhovty Vody mine in the Ukraine...as a by product of iron ore mining. This was hopelessly uneconomic
....their ScF3 method of making the Al\ Sc alloy was interesting but is not used by anyone else.
They raised a lot ( $ 20 million in a bond issue, more in equity ) of money from the markets and then lost it in one of the more stupid possible ways....one story I heard ( from within the company ) was that they ' invested ' in a fund to trade ' Prime Bank Guarantees ', something that doesn't actually exist.
There was also a huge scandal over their shares in London...a fund manager called Peter Young bought most of their issued stock in breach of his investment rules and Deutsche Morgan Grenfell ended up paying 160 million in compensation to investors....Young ended up attempting a self castration just before his sentencing from the criminal trial. Try searching a news engine archive for ' Peter Young ' in the Uk.
That's nothing directly to do with Ashurst, but just too juicy not to pass along.
So, Ashurst is now bankrupt, although there is still a small operation in the USA....there was nothing wrong with their science or metallurgy, and several of the people from that side of the business are still involved with Aluminium Scandium....but they were let down by some truly awful management and investment decisions...and this is why the market persists but Ashurst does not.
Follow Ups:
Hello, and welcome! Hirak Karmaker Posted at: 05/11/03
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Scandium Supply Andrew Gillies Posted at: 07/26/02
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Re: Scandium Supply Audrey Hansen Posted at: 04/23/03
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