Update on Solar Atmospheres of California

William R. Jones, CEO issues the following update on the company’s future plans for Solar Atmospheres of California.  “We announced more than a year ago to enter the vacuum heat treating market in the Los Angeles area.  We hired a president, Derek Dennis, and opened an office in Temecula and proceeded to search for a suitable plant site.  We found such a site in Perris, California and arranged for $12 million in financing.  In the last quarter of 2008, the bottom dropped out of the entire heat treating market, particularly Titanium, as a result of delays with the Boeing 787, and other Ti markets.  The HT market proceeded to slide further in the 1st quarter of 2009.  As a result, in March of this year we decided to delay our California investment for six months to see if the overall market will stabilize.”  Solar is a private company with all investment backed by current Solar operations and the Jones family.  Although Solar combined sales and operating profits have improved, we are still testing the market to proceed with this major investment.  Everything is in place to go forward and we expect to make a decision by November 1, 2009.