Released on March 19, 2008

Allied Mineral Products Inc., Columbus, Ohio, was named Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) Company of the Year in the Ohio/Kentucky Region at the Annual Spring ESOP Conference of the Ohio/Kentucky Chapter of the ESOP Association on March 12, 2008.

Allied was chosen based on a nomination letter which detailed events and activities Allied sponsors and/or participates in relating to ESOP awareness. The letter also contained a brief overview of Allied and a history of Allied’s ESOP, which it formed in 1976, making it one of the oldest ESOP companies in Ohio. Allied is now in the running for National ESOP Company of the Year. The winner of this award will be announced in Washington, D.C., in May.

Allied supplies monolithic refractories to the metalcasting, steel, aluminum and heat containment industries.