Recycling mine tailings into 'green' tiles
Grass Valley firm looks for investors
By Clint Swett - Bee Staff Writer
The Sacramento Bee
Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, June 3, 2007
Story appeared in BUSINESS section, Page D1
GRASS VALLEY -- Security is stringent. Its extrusion equipment is swathed in tarps and will be
unwrapped only for visitors who sign a nondisclosure agreement.
But David Watkinson, Golden Bear's vice president of operations, said he's confident the pilot
process can be ramped up to commercial scale.
"We hope to be able to produce these tiles for less than $1 a square foot," said Watkinson. "We
feel we can sell this in competition with polished granite for $10 to $15 a foot."
That price might be optimistic, but Golden Bear's products should find an enthusiastic market,
said David Leal, president of SpecCeramics, an Anaheim-based distributor of ceramic tile to
commercial builders.
"There's definitely demand for their kind of product," said Leal whose company sold 3.5 million
square feet of tile last year.
He said architects and developers are clamoring for green products because of LEED credits
they can claim, but so far he's not aware of any company that sells tile made from 100 percent
recycled material.
"We're anxiously waiting for them to get up and running so we can promote their product," Leal
said.
Of course, the green designation is all relative. While Golden Bear's tile is made from waste
material, it still will use large amounts of natural gas for its high-temperature process.
Frahme argues that tile production requires less energy per pound than glass, steel and plastic.
And he said Golden Bear's "carbon footprint" is still smaller than that made by traditional ceramics
manufacturers in Italy, Mexico, Spain and Brazil, the nations that supply most of the ceramic tile
used in the United States.
He said those manufacturers consume large amounts of energy in heating their kilns, and
transporting the tile internationally also exacts a high energy cost.
Because of these factors, the ultimate energy consumption of Golden Bear is lower than that of
foreign tile manufacturers, he said.
Timothy O'Connor, a climate policy analyst with the advocacy group Environmental Defense, said
such an approach is similar to cement manufacturers that use waste materials in the production
process.
"Anything that reduces landfill and reduces mining ... is something we would support," he said.
Golden Bear must deal with other environmental concerns, too. Regulators would demand that
mine tailings or other waste be tested for dangerous levels of arsenic, asbestos or other
contaminants before being processed into tiles or sold to the public, said Dean Fryer, a
spokesman for Cal-OSHA's mining and tunneling division.
Frahme said Golden Bear closely analyzes all its raw materials in compliance with Cal-OSHA
standards.
"Most of the materials we are using now, such as quarry dust, is about as benign as you can get,"
he said.
It would be up to Golden Bear to find the financing needed to build the $35 million production
plant that could turn up to 65 tons of waste material per day into nearly an equal amount of tile.
Though its original plan was to build a plant in Grass Valley adjacent to the mine, Golden Bear
officials now say they prefer a site in the Central Valley, closer to transportation hubs as well as
more sources of raw material for its ceramics business. If the mining operation is approved,
Frahme said the company would consider a ceramics production plant nearby.
In its original plans, Golden Bear aimed to build its tile operation adjacent to the Idaho-Maryland
mine. Some opponents of the mine feared that Emgold was using the tile business as a "green"
front for its mining operations.
But Frahme said whether or not the mine is approved, Golden Bear prefers a site in the Central
Valley, closer to transportation hubs as well as more sources of raw material for its ceramics
business.
If the mining operation is approved, Frahme said, the company would consider a tile production
plant nearby.
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About the writer:

The Bee's Clint Swett can be reached at (916) 321-1976 or cswett@sacbee.com.
At Golden Bear Ceramics in Grass Valley, finely ground mine tailings are heated and injected into
a form. Then, through an undisclosed process, they are transformed into a tile-like product.
Golden Bear would use tailings generated by the Idaho-Maryland Gold Mine, which is seeking
approval to operate in Grass Valley. Sacramento Bee/Autumn Cruz
Golden Bear Ceramics employees display tiles made from mining waste dust. From left are David
Watkinson and Jim Wood. In center, holding waste dust, is Joseph Cochran. From right are Ross
Guenther and Chris Frank. Sacramento Bee/Autumn Cruz
Comment by Ceramext, LLC on license to Golden Bear Ceramics Company
The patents and patent application improvements are the property of Ceramext, LLC,
which is owned by the inventor of the Ceramext (TM) process, Ross Guenther.
Presently, Ceramext,LLC has issued an exclusive license to Golden Bear Ceramics
Company, provided it continues to fullfill certain obligations.