STANSBURY HOLDINGS CORPORATION

Stansbury Holdings Corporation Announces That MSHA Found No Asbestos Contamination in Samples Taken at Its Dillon Vermiculite Mine in September 2000

Press Release by Stansbury Holdings Corporation, January 9, 2001
DENVER, Jan 9, 2001 PRNewswire via COMTEX

Stansbury Holdings Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: STBY) announced today that the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration ("MSHA") reported to Stansbury that it found no asbestos contamination in samples taken in September by MSHA from the Dillon Vermiculite Mine and Mill. The samples were taken simultaneously with sampling undertaken by MSHA at other vermiculite sites by order of the Secretary of Labor.

The samples were sent by the MSHA laboratory in Pittsburgh to the Utah laboratory of the Occupational Safe and Health Administration ("OSHA") in Salt Lake City, where the samples were analyzed for asbestos fiber content. The samples analyzed and reported by the OSHA laboratory found no asbestos fibers in the samples. The samples were taken from the respirators of three employees, and a bulk sample of dust collected from underneath the primary conveyor from the drying furnace.

Present OSHA standards classify as hazardous, samples containing .01% asbestos, while MSHA imposes on mining operations a maximum limit of 1.0% asbestos content.

Stansbury has formally adopted an operational standard of less than 10 parts per million (0.001%), the most stringent in the industry, which is 100 times more stringent than OSHA's, and 1000 times more than MSHA's, requirements.

"We are pleased that our operation is being conducted in strict compliance with our self-imposed stringent requirements, and the tests conducted by the Federal government ratifies the validity of the controls and methodologies we have implemented for employee, community and consumer safety standards," said A. J. Coffman, President of Stansbury Holdings Corporation, whose wholly owned affiliate in Dillon Montana, International Vermiculite (Montana), Inc., operates the Dillon vermiculite project.

Stansbury has two vermiculite properties in Montana, the Dillon mine and mill, and the Hamilton project near Hamilton, Montana. An Environmental Impact Statement conducted in 1993 with respect to the Hamilton project likewise found no asbestos contamination in its ores.

The Vermiculite Institute
c/oThe Schundler Company P.O. Box 513 Metuchen, New Jersey 08840
(ph)732-287-2244 (fax) 732-287-4185
www.schundler.com
mailto:info@schundler.com