INTERMET Vice President Receives Prestigious Industry Award

TROY, Mich., Sept. 22 -- INTERMET Corporation , one of the world's leading manufacturers of cast-metal automotive components, today announced that Thomas E. Prucha, Vice President of Technical Services, has received the Nyselius Award from the North American Die Casting Association (NADCA).

The Nyselius Award is presented in recognition of exceptional technical contributions to the die-casting industry. Prucha accepted the award at the 22nd International Die Casting Congress and Exposition hosted by NADCA last week in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Commenting on the award, INTERMET President and CEO Gary F. Ruff said, "It is a great honor for Tom to receive this prestigious recognition as it highlights his important contributions not only to the casting industry, but also to INTERMET's engineering and research group. This award also further enhances INTERMET's growing international reputation in the field of metallurgical research and development. Most importantly, it demonstrates that Tom and his technical team at INTERMET are producing real-world applications from such scientific research. Tom's pioneering work in aluminum and magnesium metal casting has led to many improvements in die-casting design and manufacturing, and has helped place light-metal casting center stage again for the production of automotive components."

Prucha is active in many metal-casting technical societies, including NADCA's Die Material Committee. He also serves on the NADCA Technical Advisory Group. He is a member of the steering committee of the CORMAG (Cost- Reduced Magnesium Die Casting) program, which is sponsored by the U.S. National Institute of Science and Technology. CORMAG's mission is to develop low-cost magnesium technology for high-ductility automotive applications. Additionally, he is on the steering committee of the Advanced Casting Research Center (ACRC) at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts.

Prucha also remains active in the American Foundry Society (AFS), most recently serving as Chairman of its Research Board and as past Chairman of the AFS Aluminum Division. He received the 2003 Award for Scientific Merit from AFS in April of this year and in 1994 received the AFS Aluminum Division Service Award.

With headquarters in Troy, Michigan, INTERMET Corporation is a manufacturer of powertrain, chassis/suspension and structural components for the automotive industry. INTERMET's strategy is to be the world's leading supplier of cast-metal automotive components. The company has approximately 6,000 employees at facilities located in North America and Europe. More information is available on the Internet at www.intermet.com .