IK Response

Here is IK's Response. Fantastic that he is willing to respond so quickly.

Dear
Obviously I cannot tell you anything that should be generally disclosed to the market, so the following is a pretty standard answer I am giving people right now that should cover the general intent of your questions.

I am aware of shareholders questions and am relatively in touch with a number of shareholders both large and small on these issues.  Your Board hold 15% of the shares in Mantle and we continue to buy on market and in all the capital raisings and are as focussed on shareholder wealth as all shareholders. We have never sold as we are as bullish on the coal (and the gold) in Mantle as all shareholders – so our interests are aligned with the other shareholders.

Your Board and especially myself fully recognises the differing investment focus of our shareholders between coal and gold.   I note that although some shareholders feel coal is or should be the main or only focus, just as many are in Mantle for gold.  We see Mantle as a dual focus company with both commodities hedging each other against global demand volatility. Sometimes Gold is up and sometimes Coal is up.

We must also focus on getting to positive cash-flow in a post and lingering GFC world.  Although a number of shareholders focus only on coal, the capital raise community (brokers) are currently  focussed on projects quick to cash-flow and currently to an extent not on thermal coal.  The CR was successfully underwritten because of our Norton gold potential, not coal. So in part we must take advantage of that.

I am the person to take a fall if Mantle's ASX continuous disclosure obligations are not met, so I take that very seriously.  I cannot create news nor withhold it and release at a later date.  News naturally falls out of project progress and how we prioritise project progress is driven by a number of factors, but essentially year by year period work and expenditure commitments to state governments Vs global macroeconomics demand for each commodity Vs capital resources that we have at hand.

So, this CR is based on, and was successfully underwritten because of potential for getting gold into production in the short term such that we can then fund ourselves.  This doesn't mean our focus has changed or reduced on VIC coal, rather we just need to focus some resources on gold right now.  The brown coal business in VIC continues to progress (perhaps slower than we would all like) and at very low cost to Mantle. There is heavy reliance by all players in that space on the progression of the overall process by the VIC Govt and to an extent the FEDs.  This process is quite active right now and many pieces are falling into place, but I can only release details that might impact Mantle as they are actually finalised.

Exergen are private and not obligated to make media releases, and continue to progress their commercialisation strategy which underscores them raising cash to build their demo plant.  This is the obvious next crucial step as regards our JV with them and thus positive outcomes for our Bacchus project. The JV with Exergen certainly has key milestones and related rights for Mantle if those are not met.  However we make decisions based on the best progress of the JV and thus for outcomes for the project.  Just because a milestone passes doesn't mean a major issue arises.  We are obviously in constant communication with Exergen and both parties continually seek to advance the demonstration project.  I would just comment that the entire VIC brown coal development process was delayed probably 1 year by the ALDP grant process but is now moving again.

There will be some discussion on our coal projects, including on Latrobe Valley tenements and Mulligan in the upcoming Qtr Rpt which will be released well before the CR closes.



Best Regards

Ian Kraemer, Managing Director, Mantle Mining Corporation Limited

Hope this helps.