EXHIBIT 99
CAUTIONARY FACTORS THAT MAY AFFECT FUTURE RESULTS
The disclosure and analysis set forth in this
quarterly report on Form 10-Q contain 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 or
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 their use of words such as "plans,"
"expects," "anticipated," "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. You 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.
-- HISTORICAL GROWTH RATE
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 in
each 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.
-- CONTRACT RENEWALS
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. To date, the Company's
experience with extensions and renewals of its
satellite PCC agreements has been favorable. 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
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.
-- 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,
including the Eaton litigation which has previously
been disclosed in the Management's Discussion and
Analysis sections of the Company's most recent
filings under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
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 in all of its product lines.
Difficulties, delays or failures in the
development, testing, production, marketing and
sale of such new products could cause the Company's
actual results of operations to differ materially
from expected results.
-- COMPETITION; PROTECTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Particularly in its PCC and Refractory product
lines, the Company competes 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.
-- RISKS OF DOING BUSINESS ABROAD
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, 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.
-- AVAILABILITY OF RAW MATERIALS
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.