CAUTIONARY FACTORS THAT MAY AFFECT FUTURE RESULTS

       The disclosure and analysis set forth in this report contains certain forward-looking statements, particularly statements relating to future actions, performance or results of current and anticipated products, sales efforts, expenditures, and financial results. From time to time, the Company also provides forward-looking statements in other publicly-released materials, both written and oral. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations and forecasts of future events such as new products, revenues and financial performance, and are not limited to describing historical or current facts. They can be identified by the use of words such as "expects," "plans," "anticipate," "will" and other words and phrases of similar meaning.

       Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on assumptions, estimates and limited information available at the time they are made. A broad variety of risks and uncertainties, both known and unknown, as well as the inaccuracy of assumptions and estimates, can affect the realization of the expectations or forecasts in these statements. Consequently, no forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Actual future results may vary materially.

       The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Investors should refer to the Company's subsequent filings under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 for further disclosures.

       As permitted by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the Company is providing the following cautionary statements which identify factors that could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from historical and expected results. It is not possible to foresee or identify all such factors. You should not consider this list an exhaustive statement of all potential risks, uncertainties and inaccurate assumptions.

Continuance of the historical growth rate of the Company depends upon a number of uncertain events, including the outcome of the Company's strategies of increasing its penetration into geographical markets such as Asia, Latin America and Europe; increasing its penetration into product markets such as the market for paper coating pigments and the market for groundwood paper pigments; increasing sales to existing PCC customers by increasing the amount of PCC used per ton of paper produced; and developing, introducing and selling new products. Difficulties, delays or failures of any of these strategies could cause the future growth rate of the Company to differ materially from its historical growth rate.

The Company's sales of PCC are predominantly pursuant to long-term agreements, generally ten years in length, with paper mills at which the Company operates satellite PCC plants. The terms of many of these agreements have been extended, often in connection with an expansion of the satellite PCC plant. The Company continues to operate every PCC plant that it has built. There is no assurance, however, that this will continue to be the case. Failure of a number of the Company's customers to renew existing agreements on terms as favorable to the Company as those currently in effect could cause the future growth rate of the Company to differ materially from its historical growth rate, and could have a substantial adverse effect on the Company's results of operations.

.      Consolidation in Paper Industry

Several acquisitions in the paper industry have taken place in recent months. Such acquisitions could result in partial or total closure of some paper mills at which MTI operates PCC satellites. Such closures would reduce MTI's sales of PCC, except to the extent that they resulted in shifting paper production and associated purchases of PCC to another location served by MTI. There can be no assurance, however, that this will occur. In addition, such acquisitions concentrate purchasing power in the hands of a smaller number of papermakers, enabling them to increase competitive pressure on their suppliers, such as MTI. Such increased pressure could have an adverse effect on MTI's results of operations in the future.

 

 

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.      Litigation; Environmental Exposures

The Company's operations are subject to international, federal, state and local environmental, tax and other laws and regulations, and potentially to claims for various legal, environmental and tax matters. The Company is currently a party to various litigation matters. While the Company carries liability insurance which it believes to be appropriate to its businesses, and has provided reserves for such matters which it believes to be adequate, an unanticipated liability arising out of such a litigation matter or a tax or environmental proceeding could have a material adverse effect on the Company's financial condition or results of operations.

.      New Products

The Company is engaged in a continuous effort to develop new products and processes in all of its product lines. Difficulties, delays or failures in the development, testing, production, marketing or sale of such new products could cause actual results of operations to differ materially from expected results.

Particularly in its PCC and Refractory product lines, the Company's ability to compete is based in part upon proprietary knowledge, both patented and unpatented. The Company's ability to achieve anticipated results depends in part on its ability to defend its intellectual property against inappropriate disclosure as well as against infringement. In addition, development by the Company's competitors of new products or technologies that are more effective or less expensive than those the Company offers could have a material adverse effect on the Company's financial condition or results of operations.

As the Company expands its operations overseas, it faces the increased risks of doing business abroad, including inflation, fluctuations in interest rates and currency exchange rates, changes in applicable laws and regulatory requirements, export and import restrictions, tariffs, nationalization, expropriation, limits on repatriation of funds, unstable governments and legal systems, and other factors. Adverse developments in any of these areas could cause actual results to differ materially from historical and expected results.

The Company's ability to achieve anticipated results depends in part on having an adequate supply of raw materials for its manufacturing operations, particularly lime and carbon dioxide for PCC operations and magnesia for refractory operations, and on having adequate access to the ore reserves at its mining operations. Unanticipated changes in the costs or availability of such raw materials, or in the Company's ability to have access to its ore reserves, could adversely affect the Company's results of operations.

.       Cyclical Nature of Customers' Businesses

The bulk of the Company's sales are to customers in two industries, paper manufacturing and steel manufacturing, which have historically been cyclical. The Company's exposure to variations in its customers' businesses has been reduced in recent years by the growth in the number of plants it operates; by the diversification of its portfolio of products and services; and by its geographic expansion. Also, the Company has structured some of its long-term satellite PCC contracts to provide a degree of protection against declines in the quantity of product purchased, since the price per ton of PCC rises as the number of tons purchased declines. In addition, many of the Company's product lines lower its customers' costs of production or increase their productivity, which should encourage them to use its products. However, a sustained economic downturn in one or more of the industries or geographic regions that the Company serves, or in the worldwide economy, could cause actual results of operations to differ materially from historical and expected results.

On January 1, 1999, eleven European countries adopted the euro as their common currency. Adoption of a single currency and a common monetary policy by the countries adopting the euro can be expected to have effects on competition in Europe and on the overall economy of the region, which could adversely affect the Company's financial position or results of operations.