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Brifer
International LTD, is a company established in accordance to the
laws in Barbados, responsible for the administration of the patents
and intellectual property of the companies of the IBHTM, VenprecarTM,
and Orinoco IronTM organization.
As
part of the work carried out by Brifer, registered trademarks
in Australia, Japan, Korea, United States and the CMT (Community
of Commercial Trademarks) have been obtained for IBHTM, VenprecarTM,
and Orinoco IronTM in the 6, 11 and 40 classes, which we describe
as follows:
Class
6: iron-ore
produced through the direct reduction process, to be used in steelmaking
processes.
Class
11:
Industrial plants, processes and equipment for the direct reduction
of iron-ore.
Class
40:
reduced iron-ore and industrial services for iron-ore direct reduction
plants.
Similarly,
as a result of the requests presented before the office of trademarks
and patents in the United States, the following patents were obtained
during the year 2000: alloyed briquettes and high-carbon briquettes
under the name of IBH and a patent for the process to produce
high-carbon briquettes.
FINMET
Process
The
iron-ore direct reduction technology Metallized Fines (FINMET),
with registered trademarks in 31 countries, was developed jointly
by Fior de Venezuela and Voest Alpine Industriealagenbau (VAI).
The process allows the direct reduction of the mineral from the
mineral fines, which results in lower production costs. In conventional
processes, a mix of pellets (small conglomerates of fines which
production requires an industrial process of its own) and lumps
(rocks of crude mineral) are required.
The
first plant to use the FINMET technology was Port Hedland, in
Australia, which started operations in 1999 and was constructed
by BHP Limited. The second plant to use the FINMET technology
was Orinoco Iron, constructed by International Briquettes Holding
(IBH) and BHP in Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela and is currently in the
operating tests period.
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