Spinks receipent of IMA-NA Safety Achievement Award

Ben Severinghaus, President of Franklin Industries Inc., announced today that H. C. Spinks, a subsidiary of Franklin Minerals, located in Paris, Tennessee, was one of three recipients of the Safety Achievement Award presented annually by The Industrial Minerals Association — North America (IMA-NA) and the US Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). The awards were presented at the annual meeting recently held in Bonita Springs, Florida. The award recognizes the best reportable injury rate for an individual IMA-NA member company by size category for the preceding calendar year, in this case 2004. The award criteria evaluate a company’s safety performance at all of its U.S. facilities and non-U.S. mining sites in North America. The award is given in three categories, based on employee hours: Large — 700,000 or more employee hours, Medium — fewer than 700,000 but more than 100,000 employee hours, and Small — fewer than 100,000 employee hours. Spinks was the recipient in the Medium category. The recipient in the large category was US Borax, Inc., located in Valencia California and in the small category, the award went to IMI Fabi, LLC of Benwood, West Virginia.

"The safety performance of these IMA members is truly inspiring," enthused IMA-NA’s president, Mark Ellis. "The Medium and Small Category honorees operated all of their mines throughout 2004 with zero injuries. That truly is benchmark mine safety performance."

H. C. Spinks Clay Company is a leading producer of dry and wet-process clay minerals headquartered in Paris, Tennessee. Spinks mines clay from approximately 24,000 acres of owned and leased land in the vicinity of the west Tennessee counties of Henry, Carroll and Weakley.

MSHA is the federal agency responsible for promoting and protecting the safety and health of the nation’s miners. MSHA carries out its mandate at all mining and mineral processing operations in the United States, regardless of size, number of employees, commodity mined, or method of extraction.

IMA-NA was formed in April 2002 and has grown from 35 founding mineral producer members to 43 producers and an associate membership of 47 companies providing goods and services to its members. Membership is comprised of companies that are leaders in the ball clay, bentonite borates, feldspar, industrial sand, mica, soda ash, talc and other industrial mineral industries. IMA-NA is the principal trade association representing the industrial minerals industry in North America.