S&B Industrial Minerals S.A announces the signing of an agreement to participate with a majority stake in a new joint venture, dealing with the exploitation of a mine of granular wollastonite in China, as well as the operation of the related processing unit. The agreement is subject to the approval of the Chinese authorities.

The mine and the processing unit are located near the city of Hulan, in the province of Jilin, 850 kilometres northeast of Beijing, which until today belong to Jilin Wollastonite Development Co. Ltd. (JWD). In the new joint venture being created with JWD, S&B - via its subsidiary company SIBIMIN OVERSEAS Ltd. - will control 51% and will have the management responsibility. S&B?s participation will be increased to 75% within 3 years, through a share capital increase of the new company.

The mine today has an annual production capacity of 50.000 tons of wollastonite, while the processing unit has a current capacity of 24.000 tons per year. Wollastonite?s reserves are estimated at 1.5 million tons and are considered to be of particularly high quality.

Wollastonite is a specialty mineral, used in metallurgy, in plastics, as well as in ceramics. China is the largest producer of wollastonite in the world. Today, S&B is active in the trade of wollastonite through its Otavi Industrial Minerals Division and is one of the two largest suppliers of Chinese wollastonite in Europe.

This particular investment signals the extension of Otavi?s activity from processing and trading specialty minerals to their mining as well. It is expected to increase considerably the wollastonite sales of Otavi, to about 7 million euros and to reduce the cost of raw materials. At the same time, S&B?s expertise in the planning and operation of mines will contribute to the rational long-term exploitation of the reserves of wollastonite in Hulan.

Referring to this new business initiative of S&B, the Chief Executive Officer of the Company, Mr. Efthimios Vidalis, stated that 'This investment builds on our valuable 8-year experience in China and enables us to complete one more ?market to mine? integrated chain of a specialty industrial mineral, such as wollastonite, from the European market to the Chinese mines. Our objective is to expand our activity in the global market and to gradually acquire further mines and processing units in China'.