TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA – iFire Technology Inc., a subsidiary of The Westaim Corporation, today announced a technology development collaboration agreement with Sanyo Electric Company, Ltd. of Japan to advance iFire’s solid state, inorganic electroluminescent (EL) display technology which is targeting the large screen consumer flat panel television market.

“Sanyo’s consumer television leadership and technical expertise is world class,” said Barry Heck, President of iFire. “This non-exclusive technical collaboration aligns iFire with a very important industry leader who will greatly assist us as we move from an R&D focus to pilot production. As our partner, Sanyo is helping iFire establish the technical and commercial foundation for a high performance, affordable flat panel TV.”

“We believe there is a huge market opportunity for over 30 inches large screen flat panel televisions that are competitively priced and we also believe that iFire’s inorganic EL technology is a strong candidate to capture a large share of this market,” said Dr. Fusao Terada, Officer of Sanyo Electric Company, Ltd. “We look forward to establishing this technical relationship with iFire and feel that we can greatly assist their product development efforts.”

This announcement follows iFire’s demonstration of a full-color 17-inch inorganic EL display prototype to an audience of flat panel scientists and industry peers at the annual Society for Information Display (SID) exhibition in Boston, Massachusetts in May. The prototype is the largest color inorganic EL display ever shown with color quality equal to the CRT (cathode ray tube) televisions that are currently the commercial leaders in the TV marketplace.

iFire has developed a flat panel display technology with low cost and high performance potential. It is targeting the large screen consumer television market where televisions greater than 25 inches in size account for more than US$50 billion in annual sales. iFire also features low-cost manufacturing because of its solid state structure and the performance characteristics required for commercial television, including unrestricted viewing angle, rapid video response speed and commercial quality color. The Company plans on commercializing its flat panel technology in partnership with major consumer electronics companies and expects to begin pilot production in 2004.

The Westaim Corporation is a technology accelerator that launches exceptional technologies into the marketplace. In addition to iFire, its technology investments include NUCRYST Pharmaceuticals, which researches, develops and commercializes medical devices and pharmaceutical products based on its nanocrystalline silver technology. Westaim’s common shares are listed on Nasdaq under the symbol WEDX and on The Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol WED.

SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. is one of the global consumer electronics giants while also leading the way in innovations that is expanding multimedia product technology. SANYO continues to advance business enterprise development, supplying world-class electronic products such as LCD Projectors, Digital Camera, Mobile Phones to satisfy rapidly evolving markets. SANYO’s businesses cover a broad range of multimedia & information systems, home appliances, commercial equipment, electronic devices, batteries and other products. SANYO’s net sales in fiscal 2001, ended in March 31, 2002, amounted to 2,157 billion yen (US $17.98 billion). The SANYO group is truly an international organization, consisting of approximately 158 affiliates employing over 80,500 employees globally. For further information, please visit SANYO’s Web site at URL www.sanyo.co.jp


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For more information contact:
Tony Johnston, Senior Vice President Corporate Communications Team
The Westaim Corporation
(403) 234-3103 +81 (0)3 3837-6206.
info@westaim.com
www.westaim.com

SANYO Electric Co., Ltd.
+81 (0)3 3837-6206.
tokyo-pr@svnet.sanyo.co.jp
www.sanyo.co.jp



This news release may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations that are subject to risks and uncertainties, and the Company can give no assurance that these expectations are correct. Various factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in such statements, including financial considerations and those predicting the timing and market acceptance of future products. The Company disclaims any intention or obligations to revise forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this Cautionary Statement.