ACN 095 792 288Registered Office: Level 22, Allendale Square, 77...

ACN 095 792 288
Registered Office: Level 22, Allendale Square, 77 St George’s Terrace Perth 6000 WA Australia
Telephone +61 8 225 0999 Facsimile +61 8 9421 1008
14 October 2003
Manager Announcements
Companies Announcements Office
Australian Stock Exchange Limited
10th Floor, 20 Bond Street
SYDNEY NSW 2000
via electronic lodgment
Dear Sir/Madam
SALLY MALAY – CONSTRUCTION ADVANCES, ADDITIONAL SENIOR DEBT MADE
AVIALABLE & MORE MINERALISED NICKEL SULPHIDE GROUND ACQUIRED
• Project construction well advanced and on track for commissioning end July 2004;
• Project shows NPV of $100 million ($0.86/share) and IRR of 70% at current metal prices and A$/US$;
• Banks make available an additional $3.75 million in senior debt, if required;
• 100% interest in E80/2360 tenement acquired which hosts the Corkwood Ni/Cu/Co Prospect;
• Drilling to re-commence on Copernicus/Salk JV in November after current EM survey completed;
• Roche contributes additional $250,000 in equity after the EPC contract is executed;
• Roche’s Chief Executive Officer, Robert Logan, appointed to the board; and
• LionOre’s JV with Thundelarra in the Kimberley positive for Sally Malay.
PROJECT CONSTRUCTION ON TRACK
The Company is pleased to report that construction work on the Sally Malay nickel-copper-cobalt project
(the “Project”), located 240 kilometres south of Kununurra in the East Kimberley district of Western Australia,
commenced in August 2003 and is now well advanced. The current status of the works as at 10 October
2003 is:
• 80 personnel on site;
• Construction and delivery of the permanent accommodation village to site is well advanced and
scheduled for hand-over in November 2003;
• Process plant bulk earthworks – 70% complete;
• Main access road – 90% complete;
• Village to plant access road – 80% complete;
• Concrete contractors mobilized to site;
• Plant design – 80% complete; and
• Purchase orders for 25 of the 35 major plant items placed.
Negotiations with Roche Mining for construction of the Water and the Tailings Storage Facilities and the
Open Pit Mining Contract are being finalised. Construction is tracking the revised Project Development
Schedule, which was adopted in July 2003 to eliminate the risks associated with dam construction during
the wet season. The revised schedule, as reported in the June 2003 Quarterly Report is as follows: