OREANDA-NEWS. June 17, 2011. MMX Mineracao e Metalicos S.A (“MMX”, “Company”, Bovespa: MMXM3), the only integrated iron ore mining company in Brazil listed in the Novo Mercado segment of the BM&FBovespa at the highest level of Corporate Governance, in response to the irresponsible and opportunistic "Advertising Newsletter" published by the company EMICON, which attributes to MMX responsibility for environmental damage in the Serra Azul (Iron Quadrangle of Minas Gerais), clarifies its shareholders and the market in general as follows:

All environmental problems mentioned in the “Advertising Newsletter” are the sole and exclusive responsibility of EMICON caused by illegal mining of iron ore long before the start of the MMX?s activities at the site, as expressly recognized by EMICON the record of the Public Civil Action No. 0090.03.003637-1, which was filed against the company by the prosecutor of Minas Gerais (“MPMG”), in the County of Brumadinho.

It is also important to clarify that the mentioned lawsuit was aimed at banning the activities of the EMICON at the site, precisely on grounds of environmental damage caused by the company, as well as its refusal to license and correct the irregularities which, now, spuriously through “Advertising Newsletter”, EMICON tries to transfer to the MMX, in an explicit attempt to escape the responsibilities and obligations determined by final judicial judgment, which will cost EMICON about USD  30 million.

MMX, in a strictly commercial agreement, limited itself merely to acquisition of the iron ore fines of EMICON, and uses them in the beneficiation of the iron ore produced by the Company, in accordance with the strictest of environmental standards.

As a result of such agreement, MMX assumed voluntarily, jointly with the MPMG, responsibility for revitalizing, exclusively, the area where such ore fines are deposited.

Accordingly, MMX is complying with and fulfilling in a timely fashion all obligations to the MPMG.

It should be noted also that MMX, unlike EMICON, is fully authorized to operate in the region by the relevant environmental agencies. All of its environmental permits are in place and their conditions properly met, with reports submitted to the competent agencies within the schedule required by the licensing authority.

The task of heightening the dam, which belongs to EMICON, is in the process of being licensed by the environmental authorities. MMX has already performed emergency repairs on this dam, as a measure to provide for the safe implementation of the activity of removal of illegally deposited iron ore fines by EMICON, just as it corrected the dam structure that was in a state of complete abandonment by EMICON.

Finally, MMX emphasizes that will take all appropriate legal action, including criminal prosecution of those responsible for the production and disclosure the defamatory “Advertising Newsletter”,  that is in the best interest of its shareholders, officers and employees.