For more than three decades, we have been a leading producer of silicon metal. We have leveraged our extensive experience and technical expertise to develop a revolutionary metallurgical-based purification process for the production of solar grade silicon, the primary input in the manufacture of cells for the solar energy industry. Our material, known as upgraded metallurgical silicon, or UMSi, is an economic alternative to the industry standard, polysilicon.

At the core of our value proposition is our proprietary, patents-pending process that uses non-chemical production methods to purify silicon metal into upgraded metallurgical silicon. Our process requires significantly less expenditure for equipment and facilities than the conventional process used to produce polysilicon and lower input costs. Polysilicon production is a complex chemical-based process that involves refining silicon metal to a higher purity than is usable for solar cells (as high as 99.9999999% pure). Impurities are then added through a process called “doping” to enable the solar cell to conduct electricity from the solar energy it captures. Producing solar grade silicon using this process requires extensive capital investment and enormous energy requirements resulting in high per-unit costs.

In contrast, the Timminco process involves purifying silicon metal to greater than 99.999% purity with the appropriate levels of the elements boron and phosphorus. The simplicity of our method and relatively low energy requirements result in capital investments that are as little as one-tenth and production costs that, at large-scale capacity, could be as little as half of those required to produce polysilicon. Moreover, the nature of our process enables us to rapidly ramp up capacity to meet demand.

While our product has been validated by the marketplace, we have only just begun to realize the potential. Continued refinement of our purification process, as well as the development of new methodologies to optimize ingoting, will enable our customers to increase both production yields and the cell efficiency levels they are achieving with our material. The achievement of these objectives will further enhance the value proposition of our product.