Duferco was established in 1979 by Bruno Bolfo, Chairman of the Board, and a group of other steel professionals to exploit the advantages of "emerging markets" steel production. At its inception, Duferco was based in New York, NY, and Sao Paulo, Brazil. The Company, through its relationship with local steel producers, quickly became the leading independent exporter of Brazilian steel throughout the world. Duferco's growth and profitability was based upon close relationships with key Brazilian producers (Cosipa/CSN/CST/Acominas and Usiminas) and the establishment of a small sales network, predominately in the US and in the Far East (Duferco's first office in the Far East was in Thailand, which opened in 1980).In the early 1980's, using its success in Brazil as a springboard, Duferco began to source steel products from other countries. First, Duferco concentrated on other South American countries, with its largest success in Argentina, Venezuela and Mexico. Leveraging on that success, Duferco began to develop purchasing operations in North America and Europe, with its first European office opening in London in 1981. Duferco then proceeded to open a chain of offices in the Pacific Rim that came on line in the late 1980's. After Thailand, the Company opened offices in Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong, China and South Korea.In the mid 1990's, the Company opened a large number of offices in Eastern Europe, putting in place an infrastructure in anticipation of the growth of the area as an export market. Duferco also launched ancillary trading operations in the field of raw materials primarily related to the steel industry, such as coke, coal, iron ore, scrap, pig iron, D.R.I., and related products, maximizing its contacts with steel producers throughout the world.In the mid 1990's, two occurrences in Europe presented an opportunity to Duferco. The first was the beginning of a consolidation in European steel, which caused severe financial hardship for smaller European mills. This presented opportunities for Duferco in Italy (Duferdofin), Belgique and Eastern Europe. The second was the restructuring of the Italian steel industry, which caused many steel professionals to enter pre-pension at an early age (50). This permitted Duferco to create an experienced industrial team to manage its properties.Duferco's acquisition of all assets from Ferdofin Siderurgica in receivership (now Duferdofin) was the first step in 1996, followed by many other opportunistic participations/acquisitions, such as Duferco Clabecq (1997), Makstil Skopje (1998), Duferco Farrell Corp. (1999), Duferco La Louvière (1999) and various distribution centers in Europe.

World Minerals Inc. is a world leading supplier of engineered mineral products derived from diatomaceous earth and expanded perlite, natural raw materials possessing unusually light density, chemical inertness, high surface area and intricate structure. As a result of these unusual properties, the company's products are used in a host of applications, including filtration for liquid/solid separation, functional fillers for paints, coatings, polymers and elastomers, bioreactor support, and in the promotion of plant growth. In addition, World Minerals is a leading supplier of semi-finished products, such as crushed and screened perlite ore.World Minerals operates a global network of 26 production facilities. The Company's products are used in virtually every nation, and are available either from the Company's 17 direct sales offices or through its highly capable distributors and agents.

Reading Alloys Inc has earned a global reputation for its leadership in design, development and production of master alloys and specialty powder products. For nearly half a century, the Company's innovation and technology have advanced the boundaries of alloy metallurgy. Reading Alloys is known as technically advanced, low-cost producers offering sophisticated manufacturing, MIS and process control systems that assure high quality products. Reading Alloys produces the industry's most extensive line of ferrous and non-ferrous master alloys and specifically engineered alloys. More than 50 standard alloy formulations in a wide range of sizes from chunks to metal powders are produced. In addition, hundreds of alloy formulations are tailored to individual customer requirements.

Donner Metals Ltd. is a Canadian base metals exploration and development company located in Vancouver B.C. Donner Metals is focused on base and precious metal exploration throughout Canada. Donner's flagship project is the Matagami Project option and joint venture with Xstrata Canada Corporation - Xstrata Zinc Canada Division ("Xstrata Zinc") which was signed in 2006 and covers exploration and future development within the prolific Matagami Lake Mining Camp located in the Abitibi region of central Québec. The Matagami Camp is supported by Xstrata Zinc's existing mine infrastructure, highly experienced workforce and an operating 2,600 tonne per day mill, as well as highway, railway and town site infrastructure. This infrastructure will benefit discoveries made under Donner's agreement with Xstrata Zinc.

Senator Minerals is looking for gold in Nevada but is bypassing the casinos and heading straight for deposits of precious metals underground. Senator Minerals company explores and acquires gold, silver, and copper properties primarily in Nevada, but also in Alaska and Arizona. It also has copper interests in Canada. Management and directors hold about 35% of Senator Minerals.

Memry Corporation played a critical role in the early developments of this technology. For over twenty-five years Memry has leveraged the dynamic capabilities of Nitinol as an enabling technology for some of the world’s most widely used therapeutic and implantable medical devices. Our tradition as a thought-leader in providing shape memory solutions enables Memry to develop and manufacture, in quantity, a large array of Nitinol devices for medical OEM's.Today, Memry is the only fully integrated company in the shape memory industry able to, not only process all of its own starting materials (wire, strip, seamless tubing and sheet), but to also add significant value to each of these platforms resulting in a highly engineered medical device component or assembly. With the integration of SAES Smart Materials, Memry is able to offer deep technical expertise relative to Nitinol science and development. Our continuous investment in state of the art manufacturing equipment, combined with our ISO:13485 certification, affirms Memry's leading position as the supplier of choice for medical devices requiring the enabling properties of Nitinol.With access to some of the world's most innovative, advanced material research and development resources, Memry is the technical partner of choice during all phases of Nitinol based product development.Memry is committed to maintaining our leadership as a supplier of semi-finished Nitinol products and medical device components.

Coalcorp hopes Santa fills its stocking with many lumps. The coal miner's focus is its La Francia coal mine in Colombia, though it also owns other coal projects in the South American country. Coalcorp produces about 2 million tons each year. The company also holds an interest in Ferrocarriles del Norte de Colombia, which runs a railroad from the Cesar region to Santa Marta, Colombia and a majority interest in another Colombian mining project. Coalcorp, which intends to grow through acquisitions, plans to increase its production to 6 million tons by 2010. In 2008 Pala Investments took a nearly 45% stake in Coalcorp.

Great Basin Gold Limited, through its subsidiaries, engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and trial mining of precious metal deposits. The company primarily focuses on gold and silver properties. Its projects include the Hollister gold project in Nevada and the Burnstone gold project in South Africa. Great Basin Gold is a mining company engaged in the development and exploration of Gold properties. The company is currently in late stage development at two projects in the world’s two most well known gold producing regions, with a substantial resource base of 13 million ounces in the measured and indicated category. The Hollister project is located on the Carlin Trend in Nevada, USA and the Burnstone project.

Gem Diamonds is a global diamond company that has been pursuing a long term growth strategy through targeted acquisitions and the development of existing assets. Under current market conditions, the Group is focused on the development of its cash generative assets and has curtailed all non-essential capital and development expenditure.The Group’s portfolio comprises producing kimberlite and lamproite mines, development projects and exploration assets, as well as diamond beneficiation capabilities. Operations and projects are situated in Angola, Australia, Botswana, the Central African Republic, Dubai, Lesotho, Mauritius and Indonesia.With Letšeng’s production of the world’s most remarkable white diamonds and Ellendale’s production of rare fancy yellow diamonds, Gem Diamonds is focused towards higher value diamonds. This segment of the market is expected to deliver attractive long term returns.Gem Diamonds’ strategic intent remains to be one of the world’s leading diamond companies with a specific focus towards higher value gem quality diamonds. Principally through Letšeng and Ellendale, the Group has moved a long way to implementing that strategy in the rough diamond market.Over the medium to long term, this strategy will be pursued in the polished diamond market with the development of the Group’s cutting and polishing business to beneficiate only high end quality diamonds.Due to the market conditions at the end of 2008, the Group decided in early 2009 to delay the roll out of these cutting and polishing facilities. However, the Group may further develop these facilities in the future as and when market conditions allow.

While Highveld Steel and Vanadium was once one of the world's leading producers of vanadium, now that it's a part of Russian steel producer Evraz, it's concentrating more on its steel assets. Highveld Steel mines its own ore for its steelworks, which produces plate, coil, billets and slabs. Those products go to the construction, shipbuilding, and rail industries, among others. Until the 2008 disposal of most of its vanadium operations, Highveld had gotten about a third of sales from that unit. But since 2006, Highveld Steel company has sold most of its ferro-alloy businesses as well as its 50% stake in South Africa Japan Vanadium and wholly owned subsidiary Vanchem.

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