Jan. 16, 2007 — Harsco Corp. has signed an agreement to acquire Excell Materials, Inc., a multinational company that develops minerals technologies for commercial applications through the reclamation and recycling of high-value content from steelmaking slag.

The transaction is valued at approximately $200 million, subject to various adjustments.

Excell's operations include onsite facilities at several leading steel mills where the company extracts high-value metals from steelmaking slag for resale and production re-use. The company maintains operations at nine locations in the United States, Canada, Brazil, and South Africa, and has also established a presence in Europe for future expansion.

"Excell is an ideal strategic fit in expanding Harsco's portfolio of higher technology services to leading customers worldwide," said Harsco's President, CFO and Treasurer Salvatore D. Fazzolari. "Its businesses are well-focused on the growing industry-wide demand for effective, environmentally-friendly solutions for the re-use of ferrous and non-ferrous steelmaking by-products. We see many opportunities to expand our footprint in the minerals technologies sector on a worldwide basis as another platform to Harsco's continuing growth."

Excell will join Harsco's Mill Services segment and will also share technologies and resources with the company's Reed Minerals division, a market leader in the production of mineral abrasives and roofing granules from slag materials.

Harso says that completion of the acquisition, which must receive normal regulatory approvals, is expected early in the first quarter of this year and will be immediately accretive to earnings.

Privately-held, Pittsburgh-based Excell Materials posted 2006 sales in excess of $100 million. Through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Excell Minerals, the company serves the commercial turf/agriculture and cement markets with a range of mineral-based products that include Reclime, an agricultural liming material; Excellerator, a specialty mineral fertilizer; and Excell Select, an engineered supplementary cementitious material developed to meet cement users' needs for high-performance concrete. Excell employs approximately 300 people worldwide.

Harsco's four market-leading business groups provide mill services, access services, engineered products and services, and gas containment and control technologies to major customers around the globe. The company employs approximately 21,000 people in 45 countries of operation.