SNAPSHOT OF HISTORY BEHIND JDC, INC.

1. Historically phosphoric acid is liberated from phosphate ore for commercial markets by reaction with sulfuric acid in aqueous solutions (the Wet Acid Processes) and by a high temperature electric furnace carbon reduction (the Electric Furnace Process).
   
   
2. The Electric Furnace Process was optimized by the Tennessee Valley Authority and was producing nearly half of the US phosphoric acid production by the middle of the last century.
   
   
3. The price of electricity became much higher than the price of sulfuric acid and the Wet Acid Processes came to dominate the industry.
   
   
4. In 1981, Dr. Robert Hard of Occidental Research Corporation (ORC), made an enabling technology breakthrough that opened the door to replacing all of the heat generated by electricity in the Electric Furnace Process with heat generated by carbon. This general concept had been advanced by many researchers over a long period of time. They had failed because of melting problems which Dr. Hard overcame.
   
   
5. The process employs a rotary kiln reactor and was proven in pilot plant testing at the Allis Chalmers Test Center in a continuous kiln pilot plant in 1981-2 under the direction of Dr. Joseph A. Megy.
   
   
6. ORC was closed for reasons unrelated to the phosphoric acid development program shortly after Hard's discovery and the following pilot plant runs.
   
   
7. At the time ORC was closed the process was far from optimized and projected capital and operating costs, though promising, were not sufficient for Occidental to continue development for fertilizer markets alone. The Electric Furnace Process plant owned by Occidental was facing closure due to the loss of the detergent market as formulators eliminated phosphate builders due to environmental reasons.
   
   
8. In 2003, Dr. Joseph A. Megy restarted Research and Development on the Hard Process, and made additional discoveries over the following four years that led to the Improved Hard Process for which a new patent has recently been granted.**
   
   
9. The Improved Hard Process has considerable capital and operating cost advantages over the Hard Process, and is now very competitive with the Wet Acid Process.
   
   
10. The Improved Hard Process also has major environmental and sustainability advantages, uses lower grade ores, and produces a higher quality phosphoric acid that through fertigation practices allows more efficient utilization in crops and allows for less surface and ground water contamination at the point of use.
    
    
11. Being fully aware of the importance of the new technology to fertilizer sustainability and environmental stewardship, JDC, Inc. has expanded its research institute to be able to complete the commercialization of this breakthrough technology.
    
    
12. The Improved Hard Process technology operates (albeit at much higher throughput, yield, and efficiency) within the temperature, composition, and operating envelope of the earlier pilot plant, and therefore is all ready proven technology.
    
    
13. The JDC, Inc research institute intends to build a semi-commercial demonstration plant which is an order-of-magnitude larger than the earlier pilot plant where the ultimate yield and throughput can be determined for various ores, and the process advantages can be fully quantified.
    
    
14. JDC has assembled industry's top talent and "know how" by bringing together the technical team that built the original ORC pilot plant. With this team JDC begins commercialization by setting up semi-commercial demonstration plant and scale up test labs to be strategically located to support the world's major phosphate mining operations.

**Pictures showing Idaho phosphate feed balls and spent solids exiting the kiln with the phosphorus removed and batch pilot kiln where testing was performed on Improved Hard Process. Spent balls pass TCLP environmental tests for unlimited landfill and aggregate uses.