An intimate mixture of 2-(2,4-difluorophenyl)-3-(4-iodophenyl)-1-(1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)-3-buten-2-ol (12 g, 26 mmol-see Preparation 20), formamide (18 ml, 0.25 mmol), copper (3.6 g, 57 mmol) and potassium carbonate (6.0 g, 43 mmol) was heated, with stirring, to 140° C. for 2 hours. The mixture was cooled to 100° C. and treated with a suspension of ethylenediaminetetracetic acid disodium salt (25 g, 6.7 mmol) in water (250 ml). After further cooling to room temperature, the mixture was extracted with dichloroniethane (2×200 ml). The combined organic extracts were dried (MgSO4) and evaporated under reduced pressure to give 2-(2,4-difluorophenyl)-3-(4-formamidophenyl)-1-(1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)but-3-en-2-ol (5.3 g, 55%), which was used crude in the next step.
