That means a state has already done the preliminary work for that project, he says.

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Both Mr Todd's employer and Huawei have rejected this, saying they had been involved in preliminary talks on a project that did not get off the ground.

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Of course, nothing can happen until funding has been outlined, but with a ten-year timeframe on the cards, and work potentially starting as soon as March, we might not have to wait long before we see the project yielding preliminary insights.

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Bander acknowledged that the gadget project was a preliminary study.

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Similarly, preliminary evaluations of the Edison Project, a private firm which manages 12 local schools, demonstrate that students have made significant academic gains on student achievement tests in three of the four Edison schools that opened in 1995.

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Last week, the company announced the beginning of preliminary metallurgical testing of material at the Freegold Mountain Project.

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The department already issued a preliminary environmental impact assessment, which seems generally supportive of the project.

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In reference to the proposal found on Todd's hard drive, Huawei and the Institute of Microelectronics in Singapore insisted they had no such project or even a business relationship, though they acknowledged preliminary talks.

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