Several spectacular hits with intersections of up to 52 metres at 4.5% copper in hole BKRCD72 and 44 metres at 4.5% copper in hole BKRC66 have enhanced the possibility of a dedicated copper production facility being established in the Balcooma area.

These holes, together with results released in September, have now established a coherent shoot of wide copper mineralisation extending an additional 150 metres to the north and although the drill out of this ore body is still incomplete, it is likely that the recently completed drilling will result in a substantial increase in tonnage within the main primary copper resource at Balcooma. This resource, which currently stands at 1.978 million tonnes at 3.3% copper is also expected to increase in grade.

With regard to production and development, we are pleased to announce that the Dry River South underground ore body has been accessed on four levels and 6,300 tonnes of development ore grading 10.2% zinc has been stockpiled ready for treatment. Dry River South underground ore will be blended with Balcooma open pit polymetallic ore and processed at Mt Garnet when the current campaign treating supergene copper from Balcooma is completed. This campaign, which commenced on 15 September 2005 has produced approximately 7,400 dry metric tonnes of copper concentrate at an average grade of 27.5% copper from 28,461 dry metric tonnes of supergene copper ore at a grade of 8.6% copper.