January 19th, 2004

Since the introduction of the Knelson Concentrator to the platinum industry in 1995, Knelson Gravity Solutions has continued to develop technology applications within this sector.

In the early days, Knelson pioneered the application of centrifugal technology in the recovery of platinum and other PGMs by working exclusively with nickel and platinum giant Norilsk Nickel in northern Russian.

After installing the first commercial scale Knelson/PGM gravity circuit in 1996, Knelson Gravity Solutions has expanded their base of installations at Norilsk to five separate locations consisting of twenty-six units in total. These concentrators range from platinum recovery of primary grinding circuits where early liberated Pt particles can be removed prior to flotation to the recovery of sub 10 micron values from flotation tails stream. In total, Knelson units at Norilsk are processing in excess of 15 million tonnes per year of ore.

Stillwater Mining Company (NYSE: SWC) is one of the world's leading producers of platinum group metals (PGMs).

In North America at Norilsk's recently acquired Stillwater Mining Complex in Montana, a Knelson XD30 concentrator has been installed at the East Boulder Mine. The unit was brought to site and installed as a pilot project in early 2002 prior to Norilsk's acquisition and has subsequently become a permanent part of the milling circuit.

The Knelson unit treats approximately 20% of the ball mill discharge stream and accounts for 2-3% of overall platinum recovery of which an estimated 0.5% is additional recovery.

Meanwhile, at North America's only other primary platinum producer, the Lac des Iles Mine in Ontario, the Knelson Research & Technology Centre has been conducting gravity amenability testing of various mill products. Using a modified version of their standard gravity gold test, Knelson is characterizing the response of Lac des Iles ore to centrifugal concentration technology in order to determine what, if any, opportunity exists there.

In Africa, Johannesburg-based Knelson Concentrators Africa has been actively pursuing opportunities within the South African platinum industry. Lab and pilot-scale work is currently under way on several fronts as the platinum industry on the whole seems poised to embrace Knelson technology as a viable and proven enhancement to current platinum recovery practice.

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