March 1, 2006

PRESS RELEASE

AMERICAN ELEMENTS ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF NEW RUTHENIUM TARGET FOR PERPENDICULAR MEMORY RECORDING (PMR)

[March 1 , 2006, Los Angeles , CA] American Elements announced today the launch of a new industrial scale production line dedicated to producing vacuum melted high purity ruthenium sputtering targets for use in the production of perpendicular memory recording hard drives.

Perpendicular recording is a next generation hard drive technology that stands data bits on end on the disc platter, rather than flat to the surface as with existing longitudinal hard drive recording, to achieve new levels of data density and storage capacity. Standing bits on end also improves the reliability of read-write performance in demanding environments.

For example, the new facilities produce a 99.99% ruthenium target with superior performance.

American Elements is a Los Angeles based global manufacturer and developer of engineered and advanced materials with the world’s largest industrial catalogue of rare earth materials accessible electronically at www.americanelements.com. For further information on the new Chinese rare earth tax rates, please contact your local American Elements distributor or American Elements U.S. corporate headquarters at (1)310-208-0551, FAX (1)310-208-0351 or customerservice@americanelements.com.