<PAGE> 1
EXHIBIT 6
B BIRCH MOUNTAIN RESOURCES LTD.
M 3100, 205 FIFTH AVENUE S.W.
D CALGARY ALBERTA CANADA T2P 2V7 Tel 403 262 1838 Fax 403 263 9888
NEWS RELEASE: SEPTEMBER 27, 2000
CALGARY, Alberta:BIRCH MOUNTAIN RESOURCES LTD. (BMD:CDNX) regrets that certain
statements made in its news release of June 15, 2000 and earlier disclosures may
have created an impression that Birch Mountain has established that the value of
its mineral properties is beyond that which can be ascribed to any preliminary
stage mineral exploration prospect. Birch Mountain wishes to address this
impression by stating that work on the Company's properties is still at the
exploration stage and no precious or non-precious metal resources or reserves
have been defined. Therefore, the economic significance of its properties has
not been determined.
Based on current standards of mineral disclosure, there is no conclusive
evidence supportive of the occurrence of precious metals in potentially economic
concentrations or quantities on Birch Mountain's exploration properties in the
Athabasca region of northeastern Alberta and the Dawson Bay region of
west-central Manitoba. However, Birch Mountain believes that in consideration of
the body of relevant scientific information, the identification of unusual
microparticulate precious and non-precious metals, and the identification of a
previously unreported form of naturally occurring, non-precious metal, there are
sufficient grounds to justify further investigation.
In a news release dated July 19, 2000, Birch Mountain explained to shareholders
the evolution that has taken place in its business. Research and technology
development have, by necessity, gradually become the focus of Birch Mountain's
current activities. Therefore, previous disclosure of results may have been more
appropriately attributed to advances in research and technology development than
to mineral exploration.
Birch Mountain will continue to explore its Athabasca and Dawson Bay properties,
but currently Birch Mountain may best be characterized as a minerals technology
and exploration company that holds the mineral rights to a large land position.
To effectively explore its properties, Birch Mountain will continue to develop
its technology. There is no assurance that Birch Mountain will be successful in
fully developing its technology and the technology may or may not contribute to
the asset base of the Company. There is no assurance that Birch Mountain will be
able to apply its technology commercially to its Athabasca property or that its
technology will be applicable to properties other than Athabasca, where all the
samples used to develop Birch Mountain's technology were collected.
To ensure that shareholders understand that there are risks and uncertainties
associated with its business, Birch Mountain's news releases frequently contain
a warning regarding "forward-looking statements". Birch Mountain wishes to
reinforce the fact that technology development and mineral exploration are high
risk. Speculative investment in companies engaged in these businesses should
only be undertaken by
News Release Page 1 September 27, 2000
<PAGE> 2
individuals who have assessed the risk and have made an independent decision to
make such speculative investments.
Birch Mountain faces certain risks over and above those of conventional mineral
exploration companies. Conventional fire assays have not, in general, produced
repeatable precious metals concentrations above trace levels for rocks from
Athabasca and Dawson Bay. There is a risk that an effective fire assay method
may not be developed. The failure to obtain repeatable precious metal
concentrations by standard methods may mean that there are no significant
concentrations of precious metals. If Birch Mountain is not successful in
identifying a method to quantitatively determine precious metal concentrations,
it may or may not be possible to define a precious metal resource, if such a
resource exists. If a precious metal resource can be defined, a method for
commercial production of precious metals may or may not be available.
At the request of the Canadian Venture Exchange Inc. ("CDNX"), Birch Mountain
provides the following review and clarification of the Company's development and
progress since inception.
Birch Mountain believes that its exploration information documents an unusual
form of microparticulate precious metals on its Prairie Gold exploration
properties in Athabasca and Dawson Bay. Considering the results of previous
exploration, Birch Mountain also believes that it has information to support the
conclusion that conventional fire assay, defined as routine lead collector fire
assay by a recognized Canadian fire assay laboratory, may not necessarily
accurately determine the precious metal content of rocks from Athabasca;
however, this has not been conclusively demonstrated or independently verified.
Birch Mountain has continued its mineral exploration by focusing its efforts on
research and technology development directed towards completing development of
an alternative fire assay method, developing its extraction and recovery
processes, and defining material properties.
In 1994, the Geological Survey of Canada ("GSC") and Lac Minerals Ltd.
identified microparticulate precious metals in a number of samples from
Athabasca, but they were unable to conclusively demonstrate, using standard
methods, that these occurred in potentially economic concentrations. Birch
Mountain has used GSC and Lac Minerals' data, and the results of subsequent
electron imaging studies, to qualitatively document the presence of unusual
microparticulate precious metals in rocks from its Athabasca property.
In previous communications Birch Mountain has used the term "anomalous" to
characterize the population of microparticulate precious and non-precious metals
qualitatively determined to be present in rocks from Athabasca. The CDNX has
raised the concern that because the term "anomalous" is often used as a
quantitative term, its use may have been confusing to shareholders. In the
interest of clarity in this and all other disclosure by Birch Mountain, the term
"unusual" will be used instead of "anomalous". Birch Mountain defines "unusual"
as the detection of one or more precious metal particles greater than 0.5
micrometres in one dimension, in a search comprising electron microscope
examination, at 200 times magnification, of a minimum of one hundred 400 x 500
micrometre search areas on a broken rock surface.
News Release Page 2 September 27, 2000
<PAGE> 3
Despite the documentation of numerous samples containing these unusual
microparticulate precious metals, for virtually all of the many thousands of
samples analyzed, the concentrations of gold, platinum and palladium, as
determined by fire assay, are at, near or below its lower limit of detection of
1-5 ppb. This value is approximately equal to or less than the measured global
average for gold concentrations in sedimentary rocks. Therefore, on the basis of
conventional fire assay, the concentration of gold in these rocks is not
anomalous.
From 1995 to 1997, Birch Mountain undertook field studies and analyses of
surface samples and drill core from the Athabasca property. This work included
logging cores drilled by Birch Mountain and Lac Minerals, geochemical sampling
and analysis, and electron imaging analyses of numerous rock and core samples.
In 1997, Syncrude Canada Ltd. ("Syncrude") provided Birch Mountain with the fire
assay results, pulps, and remaining core from their drill hole located at
11-7-AE-96-10W4 within the area to be developed as their Aurora Oil Sands Mine.
Syncrude's data provided independent evidence that a 1.6 metre interval of
Devonian limestone located immediately below the McMurray Formation oil sands
returned fire assay values of 4.94 g/t platinum and 0.20 g/t gold.
After Birch Mountain received repeat and confirmatory assays from two
laboratories, with the two platinum values in agreement at 2.21 g/t and gold
values of 0.19 and 0.21 g/t, it reported all results in a news release dated
April 3, 1997. When additional holes were drilled at the same location in winter
1998/99, including a twin of the original drill hole, fire assays of the
corresponding interval in the twinned hole detected no anomalous concentrations
of precious metals. No other samples from Athabasca have yielded reproducible
gold or platinum group metal concentrations exceeding 0.5 g/t by conventional
fire assay. Based on the foregoing, Birch Mountain can not define the extent and
continuity of precious metal mineralization in rocks from Athabasca. The Company
has, therefore, not yet established within a reasonable probability that there
are potentially economic concentrations of precious metals on its exploration
properties.
From its work, Birch Mountain concluded that conventional fire assays and
recovery methods may produce unreliable results when used on rocks from
Athabasca, but this has not yet been established conclusively. In news releases
dated June 24 and July 16, 1999, Birch Mountain provided comprehensive reviews
of previous analytical results that it believes support this conclusion.
Although an alternative fire assay method may eventually be identified, Birch
Mountain believes that for rocks from Athabasca a nil fire assay value does not
necessarily accurately reflect the precious metal content of the sample;
however, this has not been conclusively demonstrated or independently verified.
Faced with these difficult analytical problems, in 1999 Birch Mountain initiated
a concerted effort to advance its understanding of the nature of the
microparticulate mineralization and to develop alternative methods to measure
the concentration of precious metals in sedimentary rocks from its Athabasca
property. Birch Mountain established a laboratory equipped to address its
specific requirements.
Work in the Company's laboratory and work by Birch Mountain personnel at
analytical facilities of the University of Calgary, led to the identification of
what Birch Mountain believes to be the first documented occurrence of natural
nanoparticulate metal in two
News Release Page 3 September 27, 2000
<PAGE> 4
rock samples from Athabasca. "Nanoparticulate" refers to particles ranging from
about 0.1 to 100 nanometres in size. This form of metal was also observed in a
solution extract in tests at the University of Calgary and at a Canadian
government laboratory. Precious metals have not been identified in this form nor
were precious metals in any form observed in the specific analyses carried out
at the University of Calgary and the Canadian government laboratory. Birch
Mountain believes that confirmation of the presence of nanoparticulate metal in
rocks from Athabasca is an important scientific milestone and that detection of
metal of this form in solution extracts is an advancement of Birch Mountain's
understanding of the chemical factors that may be important in developing the
Company's technology. The concentration of this nanoparticulate metal has not
yet been determined conclusively, and there is not yet any conclusive evidence
of the economic significance of these results.
Birch Mountain regrets that some may have inferred from the information
presented in the news release of June 15, 2000, that all the analytical and
assay problems had been solved, and thus may have drawn erroneous conclusions
with respect to the value of the Company. The intent of the release was to
update shareholders on the progress of Birch Mountain's research and technology
development, and to advise them that a U.S. patent application had been filed to
protect intellectual property related to the recovery of nanoparticulate metal
from its Athabasca property. Birch Mountain retracts statements confirming the
identification of a new form of precious metals and statements relating to the
ability to estimate levels of and extract precious metals into solution Although
in-house tests have detected precious metals in extract solutions, Birch
Mountain is not yet able to consistently reproduce these results despite careful
attention to replicating conditions and procedures of tests yielding positive
results. This technology is still under development, it has not been
independently verified, and its commercial significance has not been determined.
Independent verification of Birch Mountain's extraction technology is required
prior to public disclosure of advances in the Company's technology development.
Assay Verification: In 1999, Birch Mountain engaged Strathcona Mineral Services
Limited ("Strathcona") to conduct independent sampling and provide an assessment
of precious metal assay methods under investigation by Birch Mountain.
Strathcona has collected trench and drill core samples. Birch Mountain has not
advanced an assay method to Strathcona for testing.
Independent Validation Test: On June 15, 2000, Birch Mountain stated that it had
initiated independent verification tests of its extraction technology. This
verification is a program to test, for internal purposes only, certain results
obtained in Birch Mountain's laboratory, and is better described as an
independent validation test. This work is ongoing. Independent verification of
the extraction technology is required prior to public disclosure of test results
and other significant successes or advances in technology development.
Independent Audit: Birch Mountain Resources has agreed to the appointment by the
CDNX of an independent auditor. The independent auditor will determine whether
or not there is reasonable evidence of potential economic concentrations of
minerals and reasonable evidence of potential commercial applications for the
technology under development. The scope of work proposed is as follows:
News Release Page 4 September 27, 2000
<PAGE> 5
- "Summary review of past work on the Athabasca and other mineral leases
held by the Company and how such work has been disclosed to the public
in press-releases;
- Review work relative to the identification of a "new form of precious
metal" within the context of a new ore deposit model and how such work
was disseminated to the public;
- Review the Company's approach to reviewing various assay methodologies
and the basis of the determination that they were unsatisfactory for
this "new form of precious metals" and new ore deposit model;
- Review the dissemination of the various assay results in press-releases
in terms of timing and complete disclosure;
- Review the sample preparation methodology and process development in
respect of the reported extraction methodology. This will require a
reasonable level of disclosure by Company and the auditor would reserve
the right to have the process reviewed by individuals with the
appropriate academic qualifications if deemed necessary;
- Supervise test work at an independent laboratory, along the lines of
the proposal aired by the Company at the meeting of July 25, 2000,
along with such other tests including conventional assay techniques as
may be deemed appropriate by the independent auditor. The location and
protocol for the test would be decided by the independent auditor after
discussions with the Company, and;
- Produce a draft report to the CDNX outlining the results of the audit
and making recommendations for adequate disclosure to the public. The
report would be submitted in draft to permit the Exchange and the
Company to correct any possible errors of fact."
To protect Birch Mountain's intellectual property and proprietary information,
the auditor and third party consultants that may be engaged will each sign Birch
Mountain's confidentiality agreement. The work of the auditor will commence
immediately and they will have full access to any information necessary to
complete the terms of the audit. Birch Mountain will cooperate fully to ensure
the timely completion of the audit.
With agreement on the terms of reference and scope of work of the independent
technical audit, and with the dissemination of this News Release, CDNX has
agreed to lift the suspension on the trading of Birch Mountain shares at the
market opening on September 29, 2000.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Douglas Rowe, President and CEO or
Don Dabbs, Vice President
Birch Mountain Resources Ltd.
News Release Page 5 September 27, 2000
<PAGE> 6
Tel 403.262-1838 Fax 403.262.9888
Internet Home Page www.birchmountain.com
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: This news release contains certain forward-looking
statements. All statements, other than statements of historical fact included
herein, including without limitation, statements regarding potential
mineralization and reserves, exploration results and future plans and objectives
of Birch Mountain Resources Ltd. ("Birch Mountain") are forward-looking
statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no
assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and
future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.
Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from
Birch Mountain's expectations are disclosed herein and elsewhere in Birch
Mountain's documents filed from time to time with the Canadian Venture Exchange
Inc. and other regulatory authorities. Forward-looking statements are based on
the estimates and opinions of management on the date the statements are made,
and Birch Mountain does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking
statements should conditions or management's estimates or opinions change.
THE CANADIAN VENTURE EXCHANGE INC. DOES NOT TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE
ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS NEWS RELEASE.
News Release Page 6 September 27, 2000
