ATLANTA, Oct. 31, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Ruby Mining Company (OTCBB:RUBM) ("Ruby") today announced the appointment of G. Howard Collinwood as its President and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Collingwood has served as a director of Ruby since it acquired Admiralty Corporation, Ruby's operating subsidiary ("Admiralty"), in May of 2001. Mr. Collingwood was an early investor in Admiralty and has served as a director of Admiralty since 1996. He will strengthen considerably Ruby's senior management team.
"I, together with the rest of the Ruby Board, am very excited about the executive management strengths and skills Howard brings to his new position and all of us take great pleasure in Howard's appointment," said Herbert Leeming, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ruby. "Howard has already shown himself to be a key member of our senior management team during his tenure as a member of the Board and we have total confidence in his ability to direct and manage the operations of Ruby. Howard is a respected operator with a proven track record whose extensive management experience will serve Ruby and its shareholders well for many years to come."
"We will certainly benefit from Howard's leadership abilities, hands on management experience, no nonsense style, and business acumen," added Murray Bradley, Ruby's Chief Financial Officer and a director. "He has a solid understanding of the overall strategic direction for Ruby, having helped formulate that direction, and his leadership and management skills will undoubtedly be a big asset as we now transition Ruby from the technology and permit development stage to the active operations stage."
Mr. Collingwood is well qualified to assume the positions of President and Chief Operating Officer of Ruby, having served in senior management positions for over 30 years. Most recently, he was the Vice President of Corporate Operations at CTB, Inc., a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. In that position he was in charge of a series of corporate functions including Purchasing, Maintenance and Facilities, Transportation and Tool & Die (an Engineering function).
Mr. Collingwood spent much of his management career in positions of increasing responsibility with Allied Signal Corp. (now Honeywell, Inc.), a multi-billion dollar New York Stock Exchange company that employs 100,000 people in 95 countries and is one of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average. In his most recent assignment at Allied, Mr. Collingwood served as Vice President and General Manager, in which capacity he directed the Carbon Products Business Unit (SBU) reporting to the President of Engineered Materials, one of Honeywell's three business groups.
Information about the Company
The Company has developed unique, proprietary detection technology, which it calls ATLIS, for use in locating and excavating valuable cargoes from historical shipwrecks, primarily Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, English, and French shipwrecks dating from the late 15th through the 19th century. The initial target area for the Company's archaeological operations is the Pedro Bank, roughly 2,000 square miles of ocean territory approximately 80 miles southwest of Kingston, Jamaica. Admiralty holds an exclusive permit from the government of Jamaica for exploration and excavation of historic shipwrecks located in these waters. The waters of the Pedro Bank are believed to be some of the richest in the world for shipwrecks from three centuries of Spanish flotillas carrying gold and silver bars and coins, as well as valuable gemstones and artifacts, from Central and South America, to the Spanish Empire. Admiralty has also negotiated the key terms and conditions for a proposed license from the Government of Mexico to locate and excavate historic shipwrecks in the territorial waters of Mexico, a license which Admiralty believes will be issued by the end of the first quarter of 2004.
The Company has enhanced the shipwreck search capabilities associated with its ATLIS detection technology by positioning itself to acquire and use specialized fly-over (aerial) remote-sensing analyses to detect underwater anomalies, which may indicate the presence of historic shipwrecks in licensed waters. The Company is also actively prosecuting applications for patents to protect its ATLIS technology. The Company's principal objective is to utilize its proprietary, patent-pending technology, in partnership with domestic and foreign governments, marine archaeologists, research historians, and research scientists, to become the recognized world leader in the location and excavation of historic shipwrecks.
The Company is also actively exploring the possibility of utilizing its ATLIS technology to assist the federal government in locating unexploded ordnance (bombs, artillery shells, ammunition, weapons, and other potentially explosive military devices and materials), commonly referred to as "UXO," in the territorial waters of the United States. Once properly located, the UXO may then be safely disposed of on site or retrieved and transported to a safe disposal site. In an effort to expand this new business opportunity to include land mines and other land-based (terrestrial) UXO, the Company recently granted the Georgia Tech Research Institute a non-exclusive license to develop the ATLIS technology for use in locating land mines and other terrestrial UXO, without the obvious dangers inherent in conventional location methods which often rely on digging, probing, and drilling.
Both marine, but especially land-based, UXO pose a serious, often lethal, threat to the safety and well being of millions of people. There are 15,000 to 20,000 new casualties in over 75 countries from land mines and UXO each year. The cost of successfully remediating the thousands of UXO and land mine sites worldwide is typically estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars, and it has been estimated that 100 years may be required to conduct full remediation activities with conventional technology.
The Company plans to generate future revenues from six principal sources: (i) sale of select cargo and other cultural materials from historic shipwrecks; (ii) sale of merchandise; (iii) fees from artifact exhibitions; (iv) corporate sponsorship fees; (v) sale and licensing of intellectual property rights; and (vi) fees from government agencies for assistance in locating and retrieving UXO for disposal.
Additional information about the Company can be found at www.admiraltycorporation.com.
Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Statements made in this press release, other than those concerning historical information, should be considered forward-looking and subject to various risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are made based on management's current expectation or beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management. The Company's actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, governmental, monetary and fiscal policies; our ability to obtain financing for operations; our ability to establish and maintain relationships with foreign countries; our ability to secure and perform under contracts, licenses and other agreements; adverse changes in laws and regulations; adverse decisions and orders of courts and regulatory agencies; development of competing technology to ATLIS; our ability to acquire marine vessels and conduct successful operations; less than expected performance of the ATLIS technology under actual field conditions; the issuance of patents providing adequate protection for the ATLIS technology; the successful adaptation of the ATLIS technology for use in detecting UXO and land mines; and adverse changes in the securities markets. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by, or on behalf of, the Company.