Press releases

Luzenac Group strengthens global position by gaining management control of Joint Venture in Japan

6 October 2003 - The world's premier talc producer, Luzenac Group, announced today that an agreement had been reached with its Japanese Joint Venture partners TTC (Toyota Tsusho) and Sobue to increase equity from 20% to 60%, giving Luzenac overall management control of Nihon Mistron Company, a talc processing enterprise.

"This is a milestone in our growth strategy in Asia," says Luzenac's President and CEO, Joachim Roeser. "Japanese industry requires top-range talcs for its high specification applications. We will continue to export our top end talcs from our Three Springs mine in Australia, but these talcs can now increasingly be processed locally. With the support of our Singapore office, we will also be stepping up our sales and marketing activities in the Japanese paper and polymers sector."

This agreement will enable Luzenac to strengthen its position as the leading global talc supplier.

Luzenac is the world's premier talc producer, selling over a million tonnes of talc and talc-related minerals every year. A member of the major international mining group, Rio Tinto, Luzenac is a market-oriented mining company that owns and manages over 30 mines and processing plants worldwide. As world leader, with the widest variety of ores available today, Luzenac has set the standards for the mining and processing of talc.

Press Contact
Laura Jones
Luzenac Group
Tel: +33 5 61 50 20 20
Fax: +33 5 61 40 06 23
Laura.jones@europe.luzenac.com
www.luzenac.com