NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) April 15, 2011--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it lowered the preliminary issue-level rating on American Rock Salt Co. LLC's $300 million term loan B to 'B+' from 'BB-'. We revised the preliminary recovery rating to '2' from '1'. The '2' recovery rating indicates our expectation of substantial (70%-90%) recovery for lenders in the event of a payment default. The lower issue rating reflects the upsizing of the proposed term loan to $300 million from $250 million. The preliminary 'CCC+' issue-level rating (two notches below the corporate credit rating) on the proposed $175 million second-lien notes due 2018 remains unchanged. The recovery rating remains '6', indicating our expectation of negligible (0%-10%) recovery for
