its time, page-17

PNA are saying that debt isnt an issue as per the attached response I received yesterday. We have probably all seen this answer before.

"Peter,

Thank you for your email enquiry.

The fall in the PanAust share price is due to a number of factors - the
copper price has fallen over 60% since July and the short-term outlook
remains weak; there is broader negative market sentiment towards
equities (particularly towards resource stocks); there are concerns
about whether companies in the current financial crisis will be able to
secure/refinance debt. The latter reflects failures by companies such
as OZ Minerals and CopperCo and others and I believe this is the reason
the price has fallen to current levels.

The majority of PanAust's debt is under long-term facilities which are
non-current and we are not required to refinance for several years. The
company's current debt is an US$80m subordinated debt facility arranged
with Goldman Sachs JBWere which we are required to refinance, at the
earliest, in late February 2009. There are provisions in this agreement
to extend this out to the end of July 2009. We have commenced
discussions with Goldman Sachs JBWere and other lending institutions
with the aim of rolling/replacing this facility and will provide an
update to the market once we have something definitive to say.

In the meantime the operation is performing well, as indicated in our
announcement in early December which also stated that we had secured
sales contracts for 90% of planned concentrate production to the end of
2009.

Regards

Allan

Allan Ryan
Investor Relations Manager
PanAust Limited
Tel +61 (0)7 3117 2002"