November 21, 2006

PRESS RELEASE

AMERICAN ELEMENTS' GLOBAL SOLUTIONS PRODUCTION OPERATIONS TO BE CONSOLIDATED INTO AE SOLUTIONS™ PRODUCT GROUP

[November 21, 2006, Los Angeles , CA] American Elements announced plans today to merge the sales and distribution from its five solutions production facilities into a single marketing product group under the new trade name AE Solutions™. The five effected operations include American Elements' solution production plants in the United States, Northern Europe (Liverpool, UK), Southern Europe (Milan, Italy), Australia and China.

American Elements is a manufacturer specializing in liquid forms of the compounds of Cerium, Lanthanum, Erbium, Ytterbium, Neodymium, Yttrium and other Rare Earth elements, Palladium, Hafnium, Scandium, Niobium, Tungsten, Ruthenium, Platinum as well as other advanced elements and more common commodity compounds, such as copper, tin and nickel as chloride, nitrate, sulfate, acetate and bromide solutions.

American Elements metal and rare earth compound solutions have numerous applications, but are commonly used in petrochemical cracking and automotive catalysts, water treatment, plating, textiles, research, military, and in optic, laser, crystal and glass applications. American Elements can prepare homogenous solutions at customer specified concentrations or to the maximum stoichiometric concentration. Packaging is available in 55 gallon drums, smaller units and larger liquid totes.

This consolidation of solutions distribution efforts is intended to streamline sales and customer support of liquid products and combine production capabilities where possible for better efficiency. The consolidation will not result in any worker or staffing reductions.

For further technical and pricing information on AE Solutions™ products, please visit us at www.americanelements.com or contact your local American Elements distributor or American Elements U.S. corporate headquarters. American Elements is a Los Angeles based global manufacturer and developer of engineered and advanced materials with the world's largest industrial catalogue of rare earth materials accessible electronically at www.americanelements.com. For further information on the new Chinese rare earth tax rates, please contact your local American Elements distributor or American Elements U.S. corporate headquarters at (1)310-208-0551, FAX (1)310-208-0351 or customerservice@americanelements.com.