CONCORD, Mass., April 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Starmet Corporation
(Nasdaq: STMT) announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary, Starmet
Commercial Castings, has established an exclusive strategic alliance with
Alexandria Extrusion Company (AEC) of Alexandria, Minnesota, for the business
development and manufacturing of high performance computer disc drive
actuators using Starmet's family of Multi-Generational Alloys (MGA)
Beralcast(R) alloys.
    In October of 1998, Starmet introduced a new family of extrudable Multi-
Generational Alloys based on its initial beryllium - aluminum alloy
technologies.  As an actuator material in a disk drive application, Starmet's
MGA concept provides a low cost advanced alternative technology that can
evolve, in parallel, with disk drive manufacturers' increasing track per inch
and storage capacity requirements.  As a leader in metallurgical development,
Starmet expects to be able to re-engineer alloy compositions to continuously
maintain required levels of performance for current and future disk drive
generations.  Starmet and AEC began manufacturing and delivering product in
November 1998.  To date, four leading disc drive companies have purchased MGA
extrusions and are currently assessing the performance benefits this advanced
technology provides.
    AEC has been the leading producer of extruded aluminum for use in disc
drive actuators for over a dozen years.  Recently, AEC's high-end disk drive
customers have indicated that the performance of aluminum actuators has
reached its mechanical limit and that a new actuator material must be
introduced in the year 2000.  Until processing Beralcast(R), AEC has been
relying primarily on advanced manufacturing technologies with traditional
materials to extrude low cost actuators to meet their customer's cost and
performance requirements.  The recent demonstration of the Beralcast(R) Multi-
Generational Alloys will enable AEC to continue servicing the computer disc
drive business, especially the high-end business segment, long into the
future.
    Under the terms of the agreement, Starmet and AEC will jointly market,
manufacture and distribute the materials to the industry.  Future plans may
include establishing manufacturing operations under an agreement in South East
Asia to be closer to the disc drive manufacturing and assembly supply base, to
lower product manufacturing cost and to shorten manufacturing lead-time.
Based on the rapid success of this new material introduction, Starmet and AEC
are evaluating other commercial and aerospace applications which could benefit
from a material which has significantly higher stiffness than aluminum at a
fraction of the cost of the previous metal matrix composite technologies.
    Starmet Commercial Castings, established in 1997, develops and
manufactures products supporting commercial applications of
beryllium -- aluminum alloys, including its family of patented Beralcast(R)
alloys.  These include components for semiconductor manufacturing and computer
disc drive applications.  The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Starmet
Corporation, based in Concord, Massachusetts, which is a diversified
metallurgical technology company.  Alexandria Extrusion Company, a privately
held corporation established in 1966, is a leading producer of extruded
aluminum alloys supporting diverse commercial applications.

    Special Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements
    Certain statements above, including, without limitation, those concerning
the Company's Beralcast(R) business and future manufacturing plans, etc.,
contain forward-looking statements concerning the Company's operations and
products.  Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results,
performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any
future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such
forward-looking statements.  The words "believe," "expect," "anticipate,"
"intend" and "plan" and similar expressions identify forward-looking
statements.  Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these
forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date the statement was
made.

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