AMG accelerates expansion of its mining operations in antimony, tantalum and niobium
Amsterdam, 1 September 2011 — AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group N.V., („AMG“, EURONEXT AMSTERDAM: „AMG“) announces it has appointed Mr. Gareth Penny as Chief Executive of AMG’s mining businesses. Mr. Penny is the former Chief Executive Officer of De Beers s.a., the world leader in diamond mining and marketing. Mr. Penny has over 20 years of mining experience and was the prime architect in successfully changing De Beers into the demand focused business that it is today.
AMG’s mining businesses presently consist of the antimony mining, concentration and smelting operations in Turkey and antimony trioxide operations in France, and the tantalum and niobium mining and concentration operations in Brazil.
Tantalum and antimony were listed as two of the top three critical materials in short supply, based upon dollar value, in the 2011 United States DLA stockpiles[1]
AMG intends to provide segmental reporting for its mining businesses beginning with the first quarter 2012.
AMG is also accelerating the expansion of mining activities in connection with its vertical integration strategy. Specifically, AMG will:
- expand its Turkish antimony mining, concentration and smelting capacity to over 5,000/MT of antimony metal per annum by the second quarter 2012, subject to completion of the detailed mine plan;
- expand the tantalum mining and concentration capacity at its MIBRA mine in Brazil to approximately 400,000/lb tantalum oxide contained in concentrate per annum by the first quarter 2012.
Dr. Heinz Schimmelbusch, Chairman of the Management Board and CEO, said, „We welcome Gareth Penny to AMG’s senior management team. Gareth’s joining AMG clearly reflects our ambitions in specialty metals mining.“
Mr. Gareth Penny said, „I am very excited to be leading AMG’s mining businesses. AMG already has a number of important mining operations, focused on critical metals and minerals. This new platform will allow AMG to build the scale and capacity that we need to be a leading player in the market, which has such significant opportunities“.
[1] Ryan’s Notes, Institute for Defense Analysis, „The Strategic and Critical Materials Report on Stockpile Requirements“, 2011, Alexandria, Virginia
About AMG
AMG creates and applies innovative metallurgical solutions to the global trend of sustainable development of natural resources and CO2 reduction. AMG produces highly engineered specialty metal products and advanced vacuum furnace systems for the Energy, Aerospace, Infrastructure and Specialty Metals and Chemicals end markets. AMG consists of two operating divisions, Advanced Materials and Engineering Systems, and owns interests in publicly-listed companies Graphit Kropfmühl AG (Deutsche Börse: GKR.DE) and Timminco Limited (TSX: „TIM“).
The Advanced Materials Division develops and produces specialty metals, alloys and high performance materials. AMG is a significant producer of specialty metals, such as ferrovanadium, ferronickel-molybdenum, aluminum master alloys and additives, chromium metal and ferrotitanium, for Energy, Aerospace, Infrastructure and Specialty Metal and Chemicals applications. Other key products include specialty alloys for titanium and superalloys, coating materials, tantalum and niobium oxides, vanadium chemicals and antimony trioxide.
The Engineering Systems Division designs, engineers and produces advanced vacuum furnace systems and operates vacuum heat treatment facilities, primarily for the Aerospace and Energy (including solar and nuclear) industries. Furnace systems produced by AMG include vacuum remelting, solar silicon melting and crystallization, vacuum induction melting, vacuum heat treatment and high pressure gas quenching, turbine blade coating and sintering. AMG also provides vacuum case-hardening heat treatment services on a tolling basis.
Graphit Kropfmühl AG is a majority controlled, publicly listed subsidiary of AMG. Based on its secure raw material sources in Africa, Asia and Europe, Graphit Kropfmühl is a specialist in the production of silicon metal and the extraction, processing and refining of natural crystalline graphite for a wide range of energy saving industrial applications.
Timminco Limited is a publicly listed affiliate of AMG. Timminco produces silicon metal for the chemical, aluminum, electronic and solar industries. Timminco also produces solar grade silicon, using its proprietary technology for purifying silicon metal, for the solar energy industry.
With over 3,000 employees, AMG operates globally with production facilities in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Czech Republic, United States, China, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, Poland, India and Sri Lanka and also has sales and customer service offices in Belgium, Russia and Japan (www.amg-nv.com).
For further information please contact:
AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group N.V. +1 610 975 4901
Jonathan Costello
Vice President of Corporate Communications
jcostello@amg-nv.com
Disclaimer
Certain statements in this press release are not historical facts and are „forward looking.“ Forward looking statements include statements concerning AMG’s plans, expectations, projections, objectives, targets, goals, strategies, future events, future revenues or performance, capital expenditures, financing needs, plans and intentions relating to acquisitions, AMG’s competitive strengths and weaknesses, plans or goals relating to forecasted production, reserves, financial position and future operations and development, AMG’s business strategy and the trends AMG anticipates in the industries and the political and legal environment in which it operates and other information that is not historical information. When used in this press release, the words „expects,“ „believes,“ „anticipates,“ „plans,“ „may,“ „will,“ „should,“ and similar expressions, and the negatives thereof, are intended to identify forward looking statements. By their very nature, forward looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and risks exist that the predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward looking statements will not be achieved. These forward looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. AMG expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward looking statement contained herein to reflect any change in AMG’s expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any forward looking statement is based.
AMG announces appointment of Mr. Gareth Penny to lead AMG’s mining businesses