Minotaur Resources Ltd (MNR) – Bringing Prominent Hill into Production possibly by 2006

• After acquiring 100% of the Mt Woods Joint Venture areas, MNR has farmed out the area to Oxiana Resources (OXR) such that OXR can acquire a 65% interest in the tenements that contains the Prominent Hill copper-gold discovery for $34m. The staged farm-in includes an initial $3.5m for infill drilling to result in a resource, followed by a $5m pre-feasibility, and then full feasibility study, which could result in Prominent Hill being in production by the end of 2006.
• The effective Strategic Alliance between MNR and OXR is a good “combination”, leaving MNR to focus on exploration with OXR taking over the mining aspects of Prominent Hill assuming that it is viable to some degree.
• The haematite breccia zone of the orebody appears to be consistently mineralised, for the northernmost limb, and a mineralised block can be estimated as containing about 70mt (our figures) (based on a conceptual block about 120m wide by 350m high by 1000m long) that allows for possibly a 30% reduction due to an apparent plunging grade distribution and assumes ~70% of the resource may be mineable.
• At this stage, it is too early to estimate grades and model MNR until the resource has been determined after the infill drilling. Possibly, Prominent Hill could be a selective 1mtpa to 2mtpa producer initially mining higher grade >2.5%Cu-equiv areas, which were observed in the detailed drillhole 1m sampling as in DP005’s intersection of 209m @ 1.54%Cu & 0.9g/tAu including lengths of 7m to 8m at about3.0%Cu & 4.5g/t Au.
• However, its actual throughput rate, be it 3mtpa sub-level open-stoping method or capex of ~A$200m depends on the feasibility study. A mine life of 20 to 25 years conceptually appears to be achievable and probably the target of the OXR farm-in.