Sulphuric Acid - NEWS - 2001

Deal to Transport Sulphuric Acid
Marsulex Completes Sale Of Removal Services Businesses To Chemtrade Logistics Income Fund For Transaction Valued At $167 Million
Marsulex Inc. Announces Plans to Dispose of Its Eastern North American and Sulphur Removal Services Businesses and BCT Chemtrade to a Newly Created Public Income Fund
ASARCO to Close East Helena Smelter
Lurgi Hands Over Europe's Largest Sulfuric Acid Plant

Deal to Transport Sulphuric Acid

May 17, 2001 - TransNamib Holdings has clinched a lucrative deal of transporting sulphuric acid from the Rössing Uranium mine acid storage plant near Swakopmund to Chingola on the Zambian copperbelt. The acid is used by the copper mines in this town close to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) border. The deal is in place since 1 May.

 The acid is imported from overseas through Walvis Bay and then stored at the Rössing mine.

In an interview this week, Mr Adrian Coetzee, business development manager at TransNamib Holdings did not want to disclose the money that the state-owned transport utility would earn apart from saying that, "It would contribute to the profit margins." The deal will run for 18 months and will involve the transportation of 1000 tons of sulphuric acid per month. The deal is renewable and Coetzee hopes it will be "evergreen". He added that the acid will be transported by rail from the Rössing mine to Grootfontein from where it will be loaded on trucks for a six-day journey to Zambia. The now privatised Zambian mines have recently been recapitalised by the new owners Anglo-American Corporation. Further, Coetzee said crewmembers have undergone special training to handle the hazardous acid.

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Marsulex Completes Sale Of Removal Services Businesses To Chemtrade Logistics Income Fund For Transaction Valued At $167 Million

TORONTO , July 18, 2001 - Marsulex Inc. (TSE: MLX), announced today that it has completed the sale of its sulphur removal services businesses in eastern North America and of BCT Chemtrade Corporation, a subsidiary of Marsulex, to Chemtrade Logistics Income Fund, a newly created income fund established to purchase the businesses.

Marsulex received gross cash proceeds of approximately $156 million and approximately a 9% interest in the Fund from the sale. The Company has agreed to sell its interest in the Fund for gross cash proceeds of approximately $11.1 million if, as expected, an over-allotment option granted to the underwriters of the Fund's recent initial public offering is exercised. This would bring the total gross cash proceeds from the sale to $167 million. The sale generates an after tax profit of approximately $70 million which will greatly increase the book equity of Marsulex. Post sale, on a pro forma basis, the retained businesses of Marsulex, including last year's acquisition of Westaim, generated EBITDA for the latest 12 month period ending March 31, 2001 of approximately $26.5 million.

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Marsulex Inc. Announces Plans to Dispose of Its Eastern North American and Sulphur Removal Services Businesses and BCT Chemtrade to a Newly Created Public Income Fund

May 16, 2001 - Marsulex Inc. announced today that it plans to dispose of its eastern North American and sulphur removal services businesses and BCT Chemtrade (a subsidiary of Marsulex) to a newly created public income fund. Marsulex intends to use proceeds received from the proposed transaction for a combination of reinvestment and debt reduction.

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ASARCO to Close East Helena Smelter

February 2, 2001 - ASARCO Inc. announces it will close it East Helena, Montana lead smelter on or about April 4, 2001 due to its inability to obtain appropriate feed materials that permit continued operation of the smelter.

The smelter will reopen when market conditions and supply of concentrates and other raw materials improve to the point where it becomes economically feasible.

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Lurgi Hands Over Europe's Largest Sulfuric Acid Plant

January 24, 2001 - The largest sulfuric acid plant of Europe has been handed over by Lurgi Metallurgie GmbH to the
Spanish chemical group Fertiberia.  The plant in Huelva near Sevilla produces 800,000 tons of sulfuric acid per year.
It is the sixteenth sulfuric acid plant built by Lurgi in Spain alone over the past 30 years. Lurgi is world market leader in
this sector.

Fertiberia, the most important Spanish fertilizer group, uses sulfuric acid from the Huelva plant for the production of
fertilizers; the feedstock is elemental sulfur which is imported to Spain. Apart from sulfuric acid, the plant additionally
generates 1.1 million tons of high-pressure steam per year; it is converted into electricity in a generator with an output
of 15 megawatt. Low-pressure steam is consumed in the phosphoric acid plants which means that all energy is
optimally utilized.

Lurgi executed the 28-million-Euro order from Huelva for the turnkey construction of the plant from two locations,
Frankfurt and Madrid. Lurgi Metallurgie GmbH provided the process technology, its specialists managed the
commissioning and trained the customer’s personnel. Lurgi’s Spanish subsidiary Lurgi Española was involved in the
supply of vessels, mechanical, electrical equipment and instrumentation as well as the supervision of the construction
and erection work.