For immediate release

The Westaim Corporation appoints Nicolas W. Khoury as President of iFire Technology
iFire prepares to enter manufacturing and commercialization phase

CALGARY, Alberta, January 6, 2005 – The Westaim Corporation announced today that Nicolas W. Khoury has been appointed President of iFire Technology Corp., a subsidiary of The Westaim Corporation, effective January 10, 2005. Anthony B. Johnston will remain as Westaim Senior Vice President and will continue to play a senior role in iFire’s corporate development and partnership activities.

“Tony Johnston is to be commended for the outstanding job he has done at iFire over the past two years readying the company for commercial manufacturing,” said Barry M. Heck, President & CEO of The Westaim Corporation. “Tony will continue to play an integral role on behalf of Westaim in iFire’s ongoing partnership discussions and other corporate activities as the company moves toward commercial manufacturing and will work closely with Nick as the pilot plant becomes operational.”

Before joining iFire, Mr. Khoury was President of OFS Fitel LLC, the fibre optics division of The Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. of Japan, where he led the company’s expansion into growing markets such as China. Prior to OFS Fitel, he spent five years with Lucent Technologies in a variety of senior manufacturing and general management roles and 12 years with AT&T in its semiconductor manufacturing division. Mr. Khoury will report to the President & CEO of Westaim.

“Nick is an experienced technology executive with an impressive background in manufacturing and commercializing technology products,” said Mr. Heck. “With iFire entering into manufacturing, his experience taking new technologies into a manufacturing environment will be a tremendous asset to the company.”

“With Nick, iFire is getting a leader who has successfully and consistently moved new technologies from R&D into mass production,” said Anthony B. Johnston, Senior Vice President of Westaim.

iFire is currently expanding its research and development facility in Toronto to include pilot manufacturing of mid-30-inch sized flat panel displays. The pilot facility is expected to begin operation in the second half of 2005. iFire plans on commercializing its technology with manufacturing partners and estimates that its proprietary technology has a 30 to 50 percent manufacturing cost advantage over other flat panel display technologies.

iFire Technology Corp. has developed a flat panel display with low cost and high performance potential called thick-film dielectric electroluminescent technology (TDEL). With superior video performance characteristics and a substantial manufacturing cost advantage over other flat panel display technologies, iFire’s proprietary TDEL technology has the potential to become an affordable, high performance alternative for the mass consumer flat panel television market. iFire plans to initially target the mid-30-inch screen size segment of the flat panel television market in partnership with major consumer electronics companies.

In addition to iFire Technology, The Westaim Corporation’s technology investments include NUCRYST Pharmaceuticals, which commercializes and develops devices and pharmaceuticals based on medical nanotechnology. Westaim’s common shares are listed on NASDAQ under the symbol WEDX and on The Toronto Stock Exchange under the trading symbol WED.
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For more information contact:
David Wills
Investor Relations
(416) 504-8464
info@westaim.com
www.westaim.com

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 but not limited to financial considerations and those predicting the development or upgrading of facilities and equipment, product development, product performance, manufacturing costs, and marketing and partnership strategies and plans. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation 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.