MINERALS TECHNOLOGIES INC

Minerals Technologies Inc. (together with its subsidiaries, the “Company”, “we”, “MTI”, “us” or “our”) is a leading, technology-driven specialty minerals company that develops, produces, and markets a broad range of mineral and mineral-based products, related systems and services. The Company serves globally a wide range of consumer and industrial markets, including household and personal care, paper and packaging, food and pharmaceutical, automotive, construction, steel and foundry, environmental, and infrastructure.

In the first quarter of 2023, the Company realigned its business reporting structure into two segments to better align our business and technologies with our customers and end markets and create a more efficient and effective management structure which reflects the way performance is evaluated and resources are allocated.

At December 31, 2023, the Company reported our operations in the following two reportable business segments under which we managed our operations, assessed performance and reported earnings: Consumer & Specialties and Engineered Solutions.

The Company is focused on executing our growth strategy of expanding our business into faster-growing markets and geographies and strengthening our leadership positions in existing markets. In addition, the Company maintains a research and development focus by accelerating the development of advanced new products and technologies to satisfy the changing customer requirements and creating market opportunities.

The following table sets forth the percentage of our revenues generated from each segment for each of our last three fiscal years:

See Note 21 to the Consolidated Financial Statements for additional details on our two business segments.

CONSUMER & SPECIALTIES SEGMENT

The Consumer & Specialties segment provides technologically enhanced products to consumer-driven end markets, including mineral-to-market household products, as well as specialty additives that become functional components in a variety of consumer and industrial goods. This segment includes two product lines: Household & Personal Care and Specialty Additives

Household & Personal Care Products and Markets

The Household & Personal Care product line delivers mineral-to-market products to a variety of consumer-oriented markets, including pet litter, personal care, fabric care, edible oil and other fluid purification, animal health, and agricultural. The core technology used in this product line is called, “Functional Additives,” which is the use of unique minerals and additives to deliver functionality to our products and our customers’ products. The principal products of this product line are marketed under various registered trade names, including PREMIUM CHOICE®, VitaLife®, Sivocat®, RAFINOL® and ENERSOL®.

The Company’s cat litter products include sodium bentonite-based scoopable (clumping), traditional and alternative cat litters sold to grocery and drug stores, mass merchandisers, wholesale clubs and pet specialty stores throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. The Company’s scoopable products’ clump-forming capability traps urine, thereby reducing waste by allowing for easy removal of only the odor-producing elements from the litter box. The Company is a provider of private-label cat litter to retail partners, as well as a provider of bulk cat litter to national brands and other private label packaging companies. The Company’s internal transportation group provides logistics services and is a key component of our capability in supplying customers on a national basis. The Company has completed acquisitions of several cat litter manufacturers over the past 5 years in both the European and North American markets.

The Company also manufactures personal care products consisting of polymer delivery systems and purified grades of bentonite ingredients for sale to manufacturers of skin care products for anti-aging, anti-acne and body care. The polymers are used to deliver high-value active ingredients and the bentonite-based materials act as thickening, suspension, and dispersion agent emollients for topical skin care formulations. The Company has been a market leader in retinol-based delivery systems and supplies liquid retinoid products. Products range from ingredient sales to fully formulated finished goods.

The Company supplies fabric care products and additives consisting of high-grade, agglomerated bentonite and other mineral additives that perform as softening agents in certain powdered-detergent formulations or act as carriers for colorants, surfactants, and fragrances. These fabric care products are formulated to adapt to our customers’ changing technical requirements.

In addition, the Company produces several other bentonite and leonardite-based proprietary solutions for consumer and industrial applications, such as:

The Company’s Household & Personal Care net sales were $517.6 million, $476.2 million and $383.7 million for the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively.

Specialty Additives Products and Markets

The Specialty Additives product line delivers mineral additives to a variety of consumer and industrial end markets, including paper and packaging, food and pharmaceutical, sealants and adhesives, paints and coatings, and plastics. The core technology used in this product line is called, “Crystal Engineering,” which involves proprietary processes to synthesize crystal type, size, and morphology to achieve specific functionality.

The Company manufactures customized Precipitated Calcium Carbonate (PCC) and Ground Calcium Carbonate (GCC) products using proprietary processes for the paper, paperboard and fiber based packaging industry. Each product is designed to provide optimum balance of paper properties including brightness, opacity, bulk, strength, and improved printability. The majority of the Company’s sales of PCC are to papermakers from “satellite” PCC plants. A satellite PCC plant is a PCC manufacturing facility located near a paper mill thereby eliminating costs of transporting PCC from remote production sites to the paper mill. The Company believes the competitive advantages offered by improved economics and superior optical characteristics of paper produced with PCC manufactured by the Company’s satellite PCC plants resulted in substantial growth in the number of the Company’s satellite PCC plants since the first such plant was built in 1986.

The Company’s research and development and technical service staff focuses on expanding sales from its existing and potential new satellite plants, as well as, developing new technologies for new applications. These technologies include, among others, OPACARB® PCC, a family of products for paper coating, our FulFill® family of products, a system of high-filler technologies that offers papermakers a variety of efficient, flexible solutions which decrease dependency on natural fibers, and NewYield® and ENVIROFIL®, innovative technologies that convert paper and pulp mill waste streams into functional pigments for filling paper.

The Company owns, operates and maintains all of its satellite facilities and owns or licenses the related technology. Generally, the Company and its paper mill customers enter into long-term evergreen agreements, initially ten to fifteen years in length, pursuant to which the Company supplies substantially all of the customer’s requirements. The Company is generally permitted to sell to third-parties products produced at a satellite plant in excess of the host paper mill’s requirements.

The Company estimates that the paper packaging market is approximately three times the size of the printing and writing paper market. Growth in the paper packaging segment is driven by growth trends in consumption, e-commerce and demand for sustainable packaging solutions. The Company offers mineral solutions for filler and coating applications in both the containerboard and cartonboard packaging.

The Company also produces and sells a full range of specialized PCC products on a merchant basis for non-paper applications, including surface-treated and untreated grades of PCC to the polymer industry for use in automotive and construction applications, and to the adhesives and printing inks industries. The Company’s PCC is also used by the food and pharmaceutical industries as a source of calcium in tablets and food applications, as a buffering agent in tablets, and as a mild abrasive in toothpaste.

In addition, the Company mines and processes GCC products at its reserves in the eastern and western parts of the United States. GCC is used and sold in the construction, automotive and consumer markets in addition to the packaging applications. Our high-quality limestone and, dolomitic limestone are defined primarily by the chemistry and color characteristics of the ore bodies. Ore samples are analyzed by x-ray fluorescence (XRF) and other techniques to determine purity and more generally by Hunter brightness measurement to determine dry brightness and the Hunter yellowness (b) value. We serve multiple markets from each of our operations, each of which has different requirements relating to a combination of chemical and physical properties.

The Company has also mined, beneficiated and processed talc through its Barretts Minerals Inc. (“BMI”) subsidiary. In the fourth quarter of 2023, BMI filed a voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, and BMI was deconsolidated from our consolidated financial statements. See Note 17 to the consolidated financial statements.

The Company’s Specialty Additives net sales were $642.6 million, $648.4 million and $578.9 million for the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively.

ENGINEERED SOLUTIONS SEGMENT

The Engineered Solutions segment provides advanced process technologies and solutions that are designed to improve our customers’ manufacturing processes and projects. This segment includes two product lines: High-Temperature Technologies and Environmental & Infrastructure.

High-Temperature Technologies Products and Markets

The High-Temperature Technologies product line delivers mineral-based blends, technologies, and systems to the foundry, steel, glass, aluminum and other high-temperature processing industries. The core technology used in this product line is called, “Engineered Blends,” which is the development of tailored blends of specific minerals and additives to enhance customer processes and product performance.

This product line produces custom-blended mineral and non-mineral products to strengthen sand molds for casting auto parts, farm and construction equipment, oil and gas production equipment, power generation turbine castings and rail car components. These products help our customers in the foundry and casting industry to improve productivity by reducing scrap from metalcasting defects and poor surface quality. The ADDITROL®blends also improve the efficiency and recycling of sand blends in mold sand systems by lowering clay consumption and improve air quality by reducing volatile organic compound emissions. Our mine to mold operational capability has resulted in providing a consistent high-quality product, technical support and reliable on-time delivery service valued by our customers.

In the ferrous casting market, the Company specializes in blending bentonite of various grades by themselves or with mineral binders containing sodium bentonite, calcium bentonite, seacoal and other ingredients. In the steel alloy casting market, the Company sells chromite products with a particle size distribution specific to customers’ needs. One of chromite’s qualities is its ability to conduct heat. The Company markets the product for use in making very large, high integrity, steel alloy castings where the chromite is better suited to withstand the high heat and pressure associated with the casting process.

The Company also offers a broad range of monolithic and pre-cast refractory products and related systems and services.

The Company’s proprietary application equipment is used to apply refractory materials to the walls of steel-making furnaces and other high temperature vessels to maintain and extend their useful life. MINSCAN® allows for remote-controlled application of the Company’s refractory products in steel-making furnaces, as well as in steel ladles. Since the steel-making industry is characterized by intense price competition, which results in a continuing emphasis on increased productivity, these application systems and the technologically advanced refractory materials developed in the Company’s research laboratories have been well accepted by the Company’s customers. These products allow steel makers to improve their performance through, among other things, the application of monolithic refractories to furnace linings while the furnace is at operating temperature, thereby eliminating the need for furnace cool-down periods and steel-production interruption. The result is a lower overall cost for steel produced by steel makers.

The Company sells the following refractory products:

Refractory product sales are often supported by Company-supplied proprietary application equipment, laser measurement systems and on-site technical service support. The Company’s technical service staff and application equipment assist customers to achieve desired productivity objectives. The Company’s technicians are also able to conduct laser measurement of refractory wear, sometimes in conjunction with robotic application tools, to improve refractory performance at many customer locations. The Company believes that these services, together with its refractory product offerings, provide it with a strategic marketing advantage. The Company also produces a number of other technologically advanced products for the steel industry, including calcium metal, metallurgical wire products and a number of metal treatment specialty products.

The Company also produces a specialized line of carbon composites and pyrolitic graphite sold under the PYROID® trademark, primarily to the aerospace and electronics industries.

The Company’s High-Temperature Technologies net sales were $720.9 million, $702.5 million and $642.7 million for the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively.

Environmental & Infrastructure Products and Markets

The Environmental & Infrastructure product line provides environmental, construction and remediation solutions. These include geosynthetic clay lining systems, vapor intrusion mitigation products, sub surface waterproofing systems, green roofs, wastewater remediation and drinking water purification technologies as well as drilling products for both the construction/infrastructure markets as well as the oil and gas exploration and production industries. The core technology used in this product line is called, “Particle Surface Modification,” which is the modification of the outer layer of our minerals through chemistry.

The Company’s geosynthetic clay lining systems are marketed under the RESISTEX® and BENTOMAT® trade names principally for lining and capping landfills, mine waste disposal sites, industrial waste storage sites, such as bauxite residue and coal ash waste. The Company also provides associated geosynthetic materials for these applications, including geotextiles and drainage geocomposites. The vapor intrusion mitigation applications include specialized technologies to prevent gas vapor intrusion in new building construction. Products offered include Liquid Boot®, a spray applied vapor barrier system that works as a stand alone or in conjunction with various membrane systems to provide best in class performance.

Additionally, the Company offers a wide variety of both active and passive waterproofing and greenroof technologies for use in protecting structures from groundwater intrusion. Our products include VOLTEX®, a waterproofing composite comprised of two polypropylene geotextiles needle punched around a sodium bentonite core. Similarly, ULTRASEAL®, an advanced membrane product built around unique active polymer core; and COREFLEX®, our award winning active polymer core and heat welded PVC membrane for protection of critical infrastructure. The newest offering we have in this space is VINTEGRA®, a product that takes our proven active polymer core and layers it between an EVOH membrane that provides the highest level of both gas and water vapor protection. VINTEGRA® is available as both an active and passive system. In addition to these membrane products, we also provide a variety of sealants and other accessories required to create a functional waterproofing system. The end-users of these products are specialty subcontractors trained by the company in the proper installation of all of our products.

The Company is also well known in the environmental remediation industry providing technologies that address a variety of complex and aggressive contaminants in soil, groundwater, and marine sediment. These products are marketed under the ORGANOCLAY® trade name. The reactive capping technologies and solutions containing ORGANOCLAY® are used to effectively contain residual contamination and to reduce costs associated with ex-situ remedies. Products offered include REACTIVE CORE-MAT™, an in-situ sediment capping material and QUIKSOLID®, a super absorbent media. The Company also specializes in treating soil, groundwater, landfill leachate, surface waters and drinking water sources contaminated with Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) under the FLUORO-SORB® trade name.

Drilling Products are used in environmental and geotechnical drilling applications, horizontal directional drilling, mineral exploration and foundation construction, as well as in oil and gas well drilling. Bentonite imparts thickening and suspension properties that facilitate the transport of rock cuttings to the surface during the drilling process. It also contributes to a drilling fluid’s ability to lubricate the drill bit and coat the underground formations to prevent hole collapse and drill-bit seizing. Our primary trademark for this application is the trade name PREMIUM GEL®.

Additionally, within this product line, the Company provides offshore filtration and well testing services to improve the production, cost, compliance, and environmental impact of activities performed globally in the oil and gas industry. The composition of customers relating to these services varies from year to year and is significantly dependent on the type of activities each customer is undertaking within the year, regulations, and overall dynamics of the oil and gas industry.

The Company’s Environmental & Infrastructure net sales were $288.8 million, $298.4 million and $253.0 million for the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively.

Marketing and Sales

The Company relies principally on its worldwide direct sales force to market its products. The direct sales force is augmented by technical service teams that are familiar with the industries to which the Company markets its products, and by several regional distributors. The Company’s sales force works closely with the Company’s technical service staff to solve technical and other issues faced by the Company’s customers.

In the Consumer & Specialties segment, the Company’s commercial sales team sells our private-label cat litter to retail partners, as well as to national brands and other private label packaging companies. In addition, the Company’s sales team and technical services staff assist paper producers in ongoing evaluations of the use of PCC for paper coating and filling applications as well as PCC and GCC use in the packaging, automotive, construction and household goods markets.

In the Engineered Solutions segment, the Company relies on industry-specialized technically oriented salespersons. These sales teams provide expertise to educate our customers on the bentonite blend properties and to aid them in producing castings efficiently. Certain other products are distributed through networks of distributors and representatives, who warehouse specific products at strategic locations. In addition, the Company’s technical service personnel advise on the use of refractory materials, and, in many cases pursuant to service agreements, apply the refractory materials to the customers’ furnaces and other vessels. Our staff includes sales professionals and technical support engineers who analyze the suitability of our products in relation to the customer’s specific application and the conditions that products will endure or the environment in which they will operate.

The continued use of skilled technical service teams is an important component of the Company’s business strategy. The Company works closely with its customers to ensure that their requirements are satisfied, and it often trains and supports customer personnel in the use of the Company’s products. The Company oversees domestic marketing and sales activities principally from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Hoffman Estates, Illinois, and from regional sales offices located elsewhere in the United States. The Company’s international marketing and sales efforts are directed from regional centers located in India, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Germany, Turkey, Japan and China. The Company believes that its worldwide network of sales personnel and manufacturing sites facilitates continued international expansion.

Raw Materials

The Company depends in part on having an adequate supply of raw materials for its manufacturing operations, particularly lime and carbon dioxide for the Specialty Additives product line, and magnesia and alumina for the High-Temperature Technologies’ operations. We also depend on having an adequate supply of bentonite, leonardite and limestone. Supplies of bentonite, leonardite and limestone are provided through the Company’s own mining operations and we depend on having adequate access to ore reserves of appropriate quality at such mining operations.

The Company uses lime in the production of PCC and is a significant purchaser of lime worldwide. Generally, the lime utilized in our business is readily available from numerous sources and we purchase lime under long-term supply contracts from unaffiliated suppliers located in close geographic proximity to the Company’s PCC plants. We currently supply some quantities of lime to third parties that are in close proximity to our Adams plant and could supply small quantities of lime to certain of our PCC satellite facilities that are in close geographic proximity to the Adams plant. Carbon dioxide is readily available in exhaust gas from the host paper mills, or other operations at our merchant facilities.

The principal raw materials used in the Company’s monolithic refractory products are refractory-grade magnesia and various forms of alumina silicates. Approximately 54% of the Company’s magnesia requirements were purchased from sources in China over the past five years. The price and availability of bulk raw materials from China are subject to fluctuations that could affect the Company’s sales to its customers. In addition, the volatility of transportation costs has also affected the delivered cost of raw materials imported from China to North America and Europe. The Company has developed alternate sources of magnesia over the past few years that have diversified our supply of magnesia. The amount sourced from China and other locations can vary from year to year depending upon price and availability from each source. The alumina we utilize in our business is readily available from numerous sources. The Company also purchases calcium metal, calcium silicide, graphite, calcium carbide and various alloys for use in the production of metallurgical wire products and uses lime and aluminum in the production of calcium metal.

In addition to bentonite and leonardite provided through our mining operations, our High-Temperature Technologies segment’s principal raw materials are coal, soda ash, chromite, and woven and unwoven polyester material, all of which are readily available from numerous sources.

Mineral Reserves and Mining Process

The Company relies on access to bentonite reserves. The Company has reserves of sodium and calcium bentonite at various locations in the U.S., including Wyoming, South Dakota and Alabama, as well as in Australia, China, Slovakia, and Turkey. Through the Company’s affiliations and joint ventures, the Company also has access to bentonite deposits in India and Mexico. The Company owns or controls the properties on which the bentonite reserves are located through long-term leases, royalty agreements (including easement and right of way agreements) and patented and unpatented mining claims. No single or group of mining claims or leases is significant or material to the financial condition or operations of our Company or our segments.

In general, our bentonite reserves are immediately adjacent to, or within sixty miles of, one of the related processing plants. All of the properties on which our reserves are located are either physically accessible for the purposes of mining and hauling or the cost of obtaining physical access would not be material. Access to processing facilities from the mining areas is generally by private road, public highways, or railroads. For most of our leased properties and mining claims, there are multiple means of access.

The Specialty Additives product line is supported by the Company’s limestone reserves located in the western and eastern parts of the United States. The Company generally owns and surface mines these reserves and processes its products at nearby processing plants.

The Company has ongoing exploration and development activities for all of its mineral interests with the intent to increase its proven and probable reserves.

See Item 2, “Properties,” for more information with respect to these facilities and mines.

The Company relies on shipping bulk cargos of bentonite within and from the United States, Turkey and China to customers, as well as our own subsidiaries, and we are sensitive to our ability to recover these shipping costs. In the last few years, bulk cargo shipping rates have been very volatile, and, to a lesser extent, the availability of bulk cargo containers has been sporadic.

Competition

The Company is continually engaged in efforts to develop new products and technologies and refine existing products and technologies in order to remain competitive and to position itself as a market leader. The company is a world leader in bentonite and PCC.

The Company competes on the basis of product quality, service, technical support, price, product availability and logistics. There are numerous major producers of competing products and various regional suppliers in the areas the Company serves. Within the Consumer & Specialties segment, the Company is a global leader in private label cat litter, North America bulk clumping cat litter and European premium cat litter. With respect to its PCC products, the Company competes for sales to the paper and packaging industry with other minerals, such as GCC and kaolin, based in large part upon technological know-how, patents and processes that allow the Company to deliver PCC that it believes imparts gloss, brightness, opacity and other properties to paper and packaging on an economical basis. The Company is the leading manufacturer and supplier of PCC to the paper industry and specialty PCC in North America. The Company competes in sales of its limestone based primarily upon quality, price, and geographic location.

With respect to the Company’s High-Temperature Technologies products, competitive conditions vary by geographic region. Competition is based upon the performance characteristics of the product (including strength, consistency, thermal durability and ease of application), price, and the availability of technical support. The company is the world’s largest producer and supplier of Green Sand Bonds, as well as the leader in monolithic refractories and solid core calcium wire in North America.

With respect to the Environmental & Infrastructure product line, the Company competes with geosynthetic clay liner manufacturers worldwide, several suppliers of alternative lining technologies, and providers of soil and environmental remediation solutions and products. In addition, the filtration and well-testing products compete with other oil and gas services companies. In building materials applications, the Company competes in a highly fragmented market comprised of a wide variety of alternative technologies. A number of integrated bentonite companies compete with the Company’s drilling products.

Seasonality

Some of our products in the Engineered Solutions segment, within the Environmental & Infrastructure product line are impacted by weather and soil conditions. Many of the products cannot be applied in wet or winter weather conditions and, as such, sales and profits tend to be greater during the period from April through October. Sales in our Specialty Additives product line, within Consumer & Specialties segment, is subject to similar seasonal patterns. In addition, the oil and gas production facilities are subject to natural disasters, such as hurricanes, which could lead to lower sales in the June to November months within this product line.

Research and Development

Many of the Company’s product lines are technologically advanced. The Company’s internal research team has dedicated years of experience into analyzing properties of minerals and synthetic materials while developing processes and applications to enhance their performance. Our expertise in our core technologies of crystal engineering, engineered blends, functional additives and particle surface modification apply to and support our product lines. The Company’s business strategy for growth in sales and profitability depends, to a substantial extent, on the continued success of its research and development activities. The Company will continue to seek out promising compounds and innovative technologies, developed mainly by our internal research team, to incorporate into our product lines.

The Company’s Consumer & Specialties segment provides a portfolio of functional components, custom blended compounds, formulations and technologies for a variety of consumer and industrial goods and has two product lines, Household & Personal Care and Specialty Additives.

Our Engineered Solutions segment provides products and services that are designed to improve our customers’ manufacturing processes and commercial projects and has two product lines, High Temperature Technologies and Environmental & Infrastructure.

For the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021, the Company spent approximately $21.2 million, $20.4 million and $19.5 million, respectively, on research and development. The Company’s research and development spending for 2023, 2022 and 2021 was approximately 1.0%, for each period, respectively.

The Company maintains its primary research facilities in Bethlehem and Easton, Pennsylvania and Hoffman Estates, Illinois. It also has research and development facilities in China, England, Germany, Ireland, Japan Turkey and additional sites in the United States. Approximately 217 employees worldwide are engaged in research and development. In addition, the Company has access to some of the world’s most advanced papermaking and paper coating pilot facilities.

Patents and Trademarks

The Company owns or has the right to use approximately 295 patents and approximately 1,874 trademarks related to its business. Our patents expire between 2024 and 2040. Our trademarks continue indefinitely. The Company believes that its rights under its existing patents, patent applications and trademarks are of value to its operations, but no one patent, application or trademark is material to the conduct of the Company’s business as a whole.

Insurance

The Company maintains liability and property insurance and insurance for business interruption in the event of damage to its production facilities and certain other insurance covering risks associated with its business. The Company believes such insurance is adequate for the operation of its business. There is no assurance that in the future the Company will be able to maintain the coverage currently in place or that the premiums will not increase substantially.

Human Capital Resources

Our people are the most important part of MTI. They are the cornerstone of our operational excellence and safety-first culture, key to our ability to execute on our growth strategies, and vital to our success. Our core values — people, excellence, honesty, customer focus and accountability — guide our actions.

Workforce Demographics

As of December 31, 2023, the Company employed 4,027 persons globally, located in over 30 countries. Of these, 1,928 (48%) were located in North America, 973 (24%) were located in Asia, 946 (24%) were located in Europe, and 180 (4%) were located in Latin America.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

As a global company, we are committed to an organizational culture that unconditionally accepts all colleagues. We believe in the power of an environment where everyone feels involved, respected, valued and connected, where everyone is free to be their authentic selves and share ideas. We believe that our culture of diversity, equity and inclusion is a competitive advantage that fuels innovation and enhances our ability to attract and retain talent. We continually strive to improve the attraction, retention, and advancement of diverse employees reflective of the communities in which we live and work. Furthermore, we place a concerted effort on the continued growth of diverse employees through various global development and training programs, mentoring programs and individual development plans. We view diversity as key to leadership development. When selecting participants for internal development programs, we ensure that groups are balanced across a number of factors, including gender, race, ethnicity, tenure, function, geography and experience. As part of our ongoing efforts, diversity and inclusion metrics, which highlight progress and help drive accountability, are shared with our senior leaders on a quarterly basis. We also conduct annual pay equity analyses, with regard to gender globally, and race and ethnicity in the United States, to help ensure our base pay structures are fair and to identify and address potential issues or disparities. We make adjustments to base pay, where appropriate.

Compensation and Benefits

We strive to hire, develop and retain the top talent in all areas of the company. MTI’s total rewards, values and philosophy is to provide competitive total rewards that include pay and benefits consistent with the varied practices in different regions of the world. We provide an array of programs to recognize individual and team achievements, and to enable us to appropriately reward performance consistent with employee contributions. MTI has a strong commitment to pay for performance at all levels. This commitment is embodied through merit increases, incentive compensation and our variable pay plans. We offer competitive compensation to attract and retain the best people. Our benefits are designed to help employees and their families stay healthy, meet their financial goals, protect their income and help them balance their work and personal lives. These benefits include health and wellness, paid time off, employee assistance, competitive pay, tuition reimbursement, career growth opportunities, and a culture of recognition.

Focus on Safety

The health and safety of our employees is our number one core value. We are committed to the health and safety of our employees, contractors, customers, and members of the communities in which we operate. Our “safety first” culture has been built through dedication, continuous improvement and active engagement. We continue to enhance our safety culture and our top priority is for all employees and contractors to return home in the same condition they arrived to work. While we believe zero-injuries across all our operations is attainable, we have set goals of 1.00 for Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR, which is the number of recordable injuries per 100 employees) and 0.10 for Lost Workday Injury Rate (LWIR, which is the number of lost workday injuries per 100 employees), and we continue to make strides to drive incidents below these levels. In 2023, our TRIR was 0.91 and our LWIR was 0.30. This safety-first mindset helps us attract and retain top talent from around the world and drives continuous improvement in our manufacturing operations.

Operational Excellence Culture

Our Operational Excellence (OE) journey, rooted in the active engagement of our employees, began more than a decade ago when we developed a comprehensive and highly structured business system of lean principles closely integrated with safe and reliable work practices. We’ve significantly advanced OE across all aspects of our company, fostering a culture of continuous improvement where each employee recognizes the importance of applying these people-focused principles and tools to solve challenges, constantly refine our processes, identify and remove risk and waste, and deliver value to our customers. Every day, MTI employees show their engagement and apply their skills in ways that deliver measurable outcomes and create both business and social value.

Talent Management

Our people are essential to the successful delivery of the MTI strategy and to sustaining superior business performance. The work environment at MTI continually evolves to maximize the employee experience and drive high performance. We accelerate the development of our employees, strengthen our leadership capabilities, and enhance employee performance through engagement.

Our culture of training and development motivates employees at all levels of the organization to work safely and efficiently. We employ several methods to engage, train and develop employees, yielding higher levels of performance year after year. Investment in skills and acceleration of employees’ professional and personal development are essential components of our people strategy. We leverage both formal and informal programs to identify, develop and retain talent across the organization. We offer formal training options, individualized development programs, tools for 360-degree feedback, mentoring, stretch assignments and growth opportunities. Through the MTI Internship Program, we identify new talent and prepare them for success within our organization upon graduation. Additionally, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and the MTI Leadership Council meet on a semiannual basis to review strategic succession plans. The above mentioned programs and succession planning sessions demonstrate the Company’s ongoing commitment towards accelerating development of our future leaders.

Environmental, Health and Safety Matters and Government Regulation

The Company’s operations are subject to federal, state, local and foreign laws and regulations relating to the environment and health and safety. In particular, we are subject to certain requirements under the Clean Air Act. In addition, certain of the Company’s operations involve and have involved the use and release of substances that have been and are classified as toxic or hazardous within the meaning of these laws and regulations. Environmental operating permits are, or may be, required for certain of the Company’s operations and such permits are subject to modification, renewal and revocation. We are also subject to land reclamation requirements relating to our mining operations. In addition to environmental and health and safety laws and regulations, we are subject to a wide variety of other federal, state, local and foreign laws and regulations in the countries where we conduct business. The Company regularly monitors and reviews its operations, procedures and policies for compliance with these laws and regulations. Compliance with these laws and regulations often requires the dedication of time and effort of employees, as well as financial resources. The Company believes its operations are in substantial compliance with these laws and regulations and that there are no violations that would have a material effect on the Company. Despite these compliance efforts, some risk of environmental and other damage is inherent in the Company’s operations, as it is with other companies engaged in similar businesses, and there can be no assurance that material violations will not occur in the future. In fiscal 2023, compliance with the regulations applicable to us did not have a material effect on our capital expenditures, earnings, or competitive position, and the cost of compliance with these laws and regulations is not expected to have a material adverse effect on the Company in the future.

Sustainability is core to who we are and the foundation of how we operate our company. At MTI, we are focused on providing the safest workplace for our employees, creating innovative technologies tailored to our customers’ evolving demands, reducing our environmental impact, preserving natural resources and making positive contributions to our local communities — all of which are ingrained in our values. For the past 15 years, MTI has published an annual Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Report that describes our efforts in continuous improvement regarding our safety culture, environmental performance, social impact, new product development, and community engagement. Over the past several years, we’ve taken meaningful steps to advance our broad range of sustainability initiatives, including establishing 2025 environmental reduction targets in six focus areas: Scope 1 and Scope 2 CO 2 emissions, airborne pollutants, water used, water discharged, and process waste landfilled, on an absolute basis and per ton of production for each of our focus areas. We are meeting or exceeding our targets in four of six areas.

Laws and regulations are subject to change. See Item 1A, Risk Factors, for information regarding the possible effects that compliance with new laws and regulations, including those relating to climate change, may have on our businesses and operating results.

Under the terms of certain agreements entered into in connection with the Company’s initial public offering in 1992, Pfizer Inc. (“Pfizer”) agreed to indemnify the Company against certain liabilities being retained by Pfizer and its subsidiaries including, but not limited to, pending lawsuits and claims, and any lawsuits or claims brought at any time in the future alleging damages or injury from the use, handling of or exposure to any product sold by Pfizer’s specialty minerals business prior to the closing of the initial public offering.

Available Information

The Company maintains an internet website located at http://www.mineralstech.com. Its reports on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K, and amendments to those reports, as well as its Proxy Statement and filings under Section 16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 are available free of charge through the Investor Relations page of its website, as soon as reasonably practicable after they are filed with, or furnished to, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Investors may access these reports through the Company’s website by navigating to “Investors” , then to “Financials”, and then to “SEC Filings.”