technical update, page-12

Was that from one or two issues ago Andy?

Its definitely good to see the BFaso community being utilised and involved in Perkoa.The staffing of the mine will be eventually predominantly sourced from BFaso once the Brynecut/DRA contractors have trained up enough locals with many potential staff having worked in underground gold ops in BFaso previously.

Most African mining projects must be economically sustainable to the host country to be viable these days(not just as a project in itself) to get the blessing of that country.

This is an area MF has worked hard to build up good will and another factor that many Aim investors forget when calling for MF's head on a plate.These countries,particularly local authorities,quite often will only put trust in the one individual to allow such exploitation of their natural assets.Suddenly having that person gone would put the project very much into question.

The timing of the production of the first concentrate at early 2008 simply will not happen imo.The plant is to only start arriving by late this year which means at least another 12 months minimum to construct and commission and this would be a miracle in itself.It usually tkes 14-16 months to go through this process.So the companies mention of late 2008 for first production in the last couple of annmnts will be the most optimistic scenario.If we suddenly see annmnts mentioning plant foundations being poured say between June/Septembet then there may be cause for some optimism that an earlier start up is possible but late 2008 is just about it and why the sp is languishing where it is.

They definitely dont need any further delays in such important elements as the logistics/offtake/finance as this could put an even larger dent in the time scale which could have nasty consequences not just for the sp but also for what NS might do.NS have already shown they are quite prepared to take the reins of companies underperforming and sell them to whoever will give them a reasonable return on their investment as evidenced by what the did with Afplats.

This would be a pity for us as we would definitely not see the realised potential of Aim due to Perkoa if this was to happen.

So lets just cross all digits and limbs and hope that things go smoothly from here on in.Don forget this is Africa!

An interesting observation in all this is that the two main protagonists in the project delays have essentially been out of the companies hands(African risk elements) and imo Aim has been doing as much as it can to shorten the time to plant installation(as this will be the limiting factor to time to production)by initiating the earth works prior to the exploitation license being received.This also indicates just how much good will has been built up by MF to convince the BFaso authorities to allow this to happen.

Aim being a buy now?

We still have tax time to negotiate Andy but if Aim does continue to hold around 20c it will simply reinforce the strength of how the market perceives Perkoa imho.I still wouldnt be surprised if it dips back below 20c though given some will still be taking profits and locking in losses prior to end of 2006/07 financial year.

d.