Equipment News & Updates May 2009

            We begin this addition of the Aqua Resources, Inc. (Aqua) newsletter by recapping recent significant developments.  With regard to the antimicrobial properties that have been investigated, those present at the stockholders’ meeting on October 24, 2008 (video available with click here) may remember Professor John Cairney of Georgia Tech University and his presentation on the antimicrobial properties of magnesium hydroxide Mg[OH]2 nanoplatelets.   Dr. Cairney has tested the Aqua Resources proprietary nanoplatelets and proved that it kills E. Coli, Staphylococcus, Burkholderia, and Bacillus cereus, an anthrax surrogate in the lab. Magnesium hydroxide Mg[OH]2 nanoplatelets also kills the fungi responsible for athlete’s foot, ringworm, and jock itch.  These are proven facts which allow us to move forward with development of marketable product lines.

            Lee Maddan, Aqua Resources President and CEO, has been busier than the proverbial bee ceaselessly moving Aqua along numerous fronts ever closer to the profitability that we all seek.  Lee Maddan and Aqua Resources had a very successful showing and booth at the Defense Department symposium in New Orleans on November 17, 2008.  One of the many important contacts he made there was Tom McMahon, President and CEO of CUBRC [http://www.cubrc.org] a company with annual sales of nearly $40 Million and experts in the arena of military Chemical and Biological defense.  CUBRC has large, state-of-the-art, highly specialized, Government certified test facilities in Buffalo, New York and is developing the next generation of biological agent counter medsures, detection and diagnostic systems, and medical therapeutics.  They have the ability and facilities to do the testing and proofs necessary to show how our magnesium hydroxide Mg[OH]2 nanoplatelets will work and to help develop it for its most effective deployment.  CUBRC representatives have been to our lab in Fort Walton Beach, Florida and Lee Maddan and Bill Harris went to Buffalo, New York to inspect their facilities.  CUBRC wants to be the primary research contractor and testing partner for Aqua.  During the  trip to Buffalo, we discussed potential terms of engagement between Aqua and CUBRC and we explored proposed responsibilities to each other. We are in the process of finalizing an agreement with CUBRC which we expect to be a partnership which will catapult the use of Aqua Resources magnesium hydroxide Mg[OH]2 nanoplatelets into use as a new tool in the defense for chemical and biological attacks and become an effective tool in the arsenal to help protect our country.  CUBRC helped Aqua arrange meetings with representatives from the offices  of Senator Mel Martinez and Senator Bill Nelson both of Florida.  Our senators could also see that antimicrobial uses were portable to civilian health care and have the possibility of reducing loss of life due to hospital infections which currently kill 90,000 people annually and might save a quarter million people from getting sick.  Now that’s exciting stuff.  We are hoping to hear from this by October 2009. 

            Along the same lines, on May 14th Aqua had a one-day event with members from Air Force Special Operations Command (Bob Montague), Air Force Research Laboratories (Dr. Joe Wander) and Dr. Cairney of Georgia Tech University to tweak and polish a “white paper” which has been requested by SOCOM’s Chemical and Biological Division.  As defined at www.Wikepedia.org,   “A white paper is an authoritative report or guide that often addresses problems and how to solve them. White papers are used to educate readers and help people make decisions. They are often used in politics and business.”  We are now in the process of writing the white paper which currently stands in draft at about 10 pages and we expect to have it completed and delivered by the end of June 2009.  The opportunity for funding based on the white paper is that it may begin within the current fiscal year which ends October 1, 2009.  SOCOM which only recently became aware of Aqua’s product and its antimicrobial properties has critical needs and a budget to support those critical needs.  They have asked Aqua to tell them in a white paper what Aqua can do.  If magnesium hydroxide Mg[OH]2 nanoplatelets can meet one of their critical needs, and we are sure that it can, SOCOM may want Aqua to develop it for deployment within SOCOM, now.  SOCOM will then become a buyer of our product for that purpose.  What our product appears to do falls within their critical need categories, but it would need further proof, which additional current funding would provide the capability to do.  A group of SOCOM’s scientists have already weighed in and said it certainly appears that magnesium hydroxide Mg[OH]2 nanoplatelets will accomplish those goals.  Our white paper will include a statement of work and the manner it will be conducted, the timeline for deliverables and the cost of the work.  We have an entire team working on this white paper and CUBRC with their expertise in this field is instrumental in this work.            

            In the same vein, we currently have more research ongoing with Dr. John Cairney at Georgia Tech University, who has taken bed sheets and washed them with our product in the rinse water to impregnate the sheets with magnesium hydroxide Mg[OH]2 nanoplatelets.  The hope is that after the sheets are washed and dried any pathogens that happen to land on those sheets will be killed by our material, thereby keeping the linens in pristine condition for service.  In contrast, chemicals currently in use such as bleach which may kill a pathogen, become ineffective after the sheets are dried.  We expect that magnesium hydroxide Mg[OH]2 nanoplatelets will continue killing the pathogens.  These tests are underway with Dr. Cairney now, today.  We want to make absolutely certain that magnesium hydroxide Mg[OH]2 nanoplatelets will not be harmful to people.  Our first step is to test against human skin cells.  We currently  have an FDA approved laboratory up in the Northeast testing our product against skin cells to see that it is safe for the consumer.  These test results are expected within the next 3 0 days (from May 1, 2009 → May 31 , 2009).         

               Dr. Jeff Owens from AFRL has discovered that nanoplatelet forms of materials work very well in his microwave form of chemistry  We have been asked  to provide compounds other than magnesiuim hydroxide in nanoplatelet form for   We continue to believe that Aqua Resources, Inc. is the only company in the world that can produce such nanoplatelets and therefore are the only source of such materials.  This request from AFRL is quite a compliment to our company and expertise and we hope to see much fruit from this in the future.  

            Coincidentally, David Ward, our operations director has recently completed a rebuild and refitting of a predecessor to the current prototype precipitator.  This will give Aqua a second machine so that we can potentially make these additional nano compounds without having to interupt the manufacture of magnesium hydroxide Mg[OH]2 nanoplatelets.

            Meanwhile, Aqua has work that has been delineated at Georgia Tech University and Dr. Yulin Deng to incorporate our product into fibers of high density polyethylene to make it stronger, lighter, more durable and fire retardant.           

            We have had preliminary discussions with an American Indian Chief from Oklahoma, who is exploring the possibility of using Aqua’s technology to put his people to work for the production of magnesium hydroxide.  They have shown an interest in building a plant to produce our material on their land.  We expect to hear from them one way or the other within the next several months..