Cape Aquatic Humates

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Cape Aquatic Humate (Pty) Ltd evolved from extensive scientific research conducted by T.M.
Thebe over the past one and half decades and business activities of Thebe Thebe Associates Close
Corporation. However, the development of crucial business strategies began in June 2008 with
the arrival of J. M.. Riggs, who brought a wealth of experience in running small and medium
enterprises and excellent marketing skills.

Trademarks Information.

The following are the trademarks of Thebe Thebe Associates(TTA):

.
Super Grade Humate™ (SG-Humate™);
.
High Grade Humate™ (HG-Humate™);
.
Mixed Grade Humate™ (MG-Humate™);
.
Ammonium Humate™ (NHx-Humate™)
.
TTA-Integrated Humate Processing™ (TTA-IHP™)


The economic benefits to the Western Cape as result of business activities of CAH are as follows:

• Job creation — About 50 mix of part-time and full-time jobs will be created directly. Some
hundreds indirect jobs will be created through agriculture, water supply, environmental
protection, distribution, tourism, marketing and other sectors.
• Agriculture — This is the most sector in the economy of Western Cape for example four of
the five top export products from the Western Cape are agricultural products (Wesgro,
2008). Our products are specifically developed to improve the productivity and profitability
of this sector, which will benefit regional economy.
• Tourism — Waters from which we extract humate products are found between Simons
Town and Pletternberg Bay in Southern Cape. Almost all the main tourism attractions are
found here. In collaboration with existing eco-tourism programme we will publish
information about wide variety of the applications of humic substances. The map of this area
showing the distribution of humic waters with different characteristics is nearly complete.
• Western Cape municipalities — Our process is design to optimise drinking water production
while extracting humate products. This will greatly assist municipalities in their cost saving
efforts, particularly those which limited resources.
• Diversity — We are the only company is South Africa dealing humate products form water.
This strengthen the diverse Western Cape economy.
• Global Climate Change — This is possibly the greatest threat facing mankind in the twenty
first century. It has been reported that it will affect African continent more severely than any
other continent and negative economic impact (Baloyi, 2007; Walters, 2007). Indigenous
vegetation such as fynbos in the Western Cape particularly vulnerable (Le Roux, 2007;
SAPA, 2007). Our proactive efforts to mitigating climate change including participation in
Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol. Our humate products are also useful
in improving the soil to withstand severe weather such as droughts.

The Market

The target market is broadly based on the applications of humate products to soil management
and greenhouse gas emissions reductions and it encompasses several segments, inter alia:

• Bio-fuel crop farming;
• Bio-inorganic or Organic crop farming;
• Organic or bio-inorganic cultivation of turf grass in sports fields and similar facilities;
• Nitrogenous fertilizers manufacturers, with significant nitrous oxide emissions.
The applications of humate to soil management and emissions reductions is relatively untapped
market with huge growth potential. The return on invest is very high and sustainable in a long-
term. The company will apply a highly focussed multi-dimensional marketing strategy to reach
the target market very quickly. The market is relatively small in agronomic sector as a whole, but
it is growing very rapidly. This growth is driven primarily by global efforts in reducing green
house gases emissions from human activities to the atmosphere and mitigating their adverse
effects on climate change. Ultimately, the company aims to be the leader in the production and
supply of aquatic humate products.Within the duration of this business plan it expects to secure at
least 20% of local market and 5% international market, which give a combined market share of
25%.

Product

The company produce aquatic humate by extracting humic substances from fresh surface waters
in the Cape region to produce proprietary commercial products of different grades. This will
mainly recovered from municipal water processing plants following a patent process

The grading is based on specific ultra-violet absorbance (SUVA) of raw water, which essential
determines the fraction or relative quantity of humic substances in dissolved natural organic
matter, measured as dissolved organic carbon and ultra-violet absorbance at the wavelength of
254 nanometres (Edwald and Tobiason, 1999; and USEPA, 1998). Thebe et al. (2000)
demonstrated that the concentration of humic substances in surface waters in the Western Cape
Province of South Africa is much higher than those reported in literature. Based on this work and
an extensive research conducted by the main author over the passed fourteen years, the grading
described below was incorporated to permit commercialization of the products:

• Super Grade Humate™ (SG-Humate™) — This is premium product containing nearly
only humic substances and its SUVA of greater than 6 litres per milligram-metre (R/mg-m);
• High Grade Humate™ (HG-Humate™) — This is product contains mostly humic
substances and has SUVA of between 4 and 6 R/mg-m;
• Mixed Grade Humate™ (MG-Humate™) — This is product contains a mixture of humic
substances and other natural organic matter and has SUVA of between 2 and 4 R/mg-m;
• Ammonium Humate™ (NHx-Humate™)
— This product shall contain more nitrogen
than natural humic substances to increase its nutritional value and wider applications.


The benefits of humate applications in soil management are numerous (Mikkelsen, 2005; Malan,
2004; Mathur, 2004; and Mayhew, 2004), inter alia:

• Reduce the need for nitrogenous and other inorganic fertilisers;
• Improves uptake of nitrogen and other important nutrients;
• Prevent soluble inorganic fertiliser from leaching out of soil matrix;
• Replenish carbon and restore its balance in soils;
• Improve soil physical properties and its water holding capacity, and the latter is important
for drought resistance and water conservation;
• Chelate soil nutrients, make minerals soluble and act as storage for nitrogen, phosphorous,
sulphur, zinc and other nutrients;
• Remove toxins from the soil.
In terms of the Kyoto Protocol and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,
industrialised countries, mainly in northern hemisphere are allocated air pollution quotas to
encourage them to reduce their greenhouse gases by 5% compared to 1990 levels during the
period between 2008 and 2012 . These quotas are divided down to operational level of individual
plant. However, in less industrialised countries, including South Africa, companies are awarded
carbon credits (known as certified emissions reductions) for developing technologies that reduce
or offset emissions under Clean Development Mechanism programme (Gilmour, 2007;
Magrofuoco, 2007).


Some other writers opinions on
Humates: http://www.humate.info/

Thebe Thebe Associates has for example developed a process (TTA-IHP™) of extraction of
humic substances from raw water and/or their recovery from processed water residue. This
process will be patented and licenced in phases to CAH (Pty) Ltd. It has zero greenhouse gas
emissions, little energy requirement and low carbon footprint.

Aquatic humate products will be sold to soil management sectors to improve the applications of
nitrogenous fertilisers. Whereas, nitrous oxide emissions?

Nitrogenous fertilisers have been chosen because of their numerous applications and benefits,

inter alia:

•
In their natural state humic substances contain approximately 1 to 5% nitrogen and they are
sufficiently present in the soil, up to 35 % of the soluble nitrogen applied as fertiliser can be
retained in organic form thus converting the nitrogen to a stable, bio-available form
(Mayhew, 2004);
•
Nitrogen compounds are widely used in water processing and soil fertilisation. Therefore, it
is relatively easily to determine certified emissions reductions;
•
Nitrous oxide associated with nitrogenous fertilisers manufacturing has a global warming
potential of 310 times more than that of carbon dioxide (Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, 2006);
•
Nitrogen compounds such as ammonia and nitrates found in water are toxic. The former is
toxic to many species of fish at very low concentration and the latter is toxic to babies
(Sawyer et al., 1994; Mason, 1993);
•
Ecological impact of nitrogen applied to turf grass in golf courses is increasing coming
under tremendous scrutiny in developed countries, especially the United States, as a result
humic substances have become an attractive alternative (Mayhew, 2004);



•
Humate products applied to soil affect the release of nitrogen through slow decomposition
by organisms and restore natural nitrogen cycle (Malan, 2004).
Price

The pricing strategy/policy is to enter the market at least 10% lower the competitors and keep
prices the same for the first two years of operations, to allow competitive market entry. The price
of certified emissions reductions is obtained from European market (Jardine, 2005; EU, 2007).
viz.:

•
SG-Humate™
•
HG-Humate™
•
MG-Humate™
•

Please note in German these products are known as Wasserhumates,Huminsäure while in Chinese known as 海角水生humates or 胡敏酸

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This information brought to yo by John M Riggs of houseofdijohn.com ,haaspoort.com and houseofdijohn.co.za