PROFILES OF DIRECTORS & EXECUTIVES

Garry Lowder has 38 years experience as a professional geologist, including nearly 30 years in exploration, mostly in Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. In Australia he has worked extensively in the Lachlan and New England Fold Belts of NSW, the Eastern Goldfields, Pilbara and Kimberley regions of WA, and in both northwestern and eastern Queensland, where he has explored for many different types of metallic deposit, including porphyry-type copper-gold, Archaean greenstone gold, epithermal gold-silver and volcanogenic massive sulphides. He has enjoyed discovery success in North Sulawesi, Indonesia (copper), at Paddington near Kalgoorlie in WA (gold), at Wodgina in the Pilbara of WA (tantalum) and especially in NSW at Parkes (copper-gold) and Lake Cowal (gold). He is a specialist in porphyry-type deposits, where his petrological expertise can be especially well applied. Garry has extensive experience in all the usual commercial matters that form part of the exploration business and has held senior management positions in both the private sector and state government, including four years as Director General of Mines in NSW. He is also a non-executive director of the listed mining company Straits Resources Limited, which owns and operates the Nifty mine in WA, producing copper cathodes by the solvent extraction/electro-winning process, and the Sebuku coal mine in Indonesia.

Dr Lowder is a graduate of the University of Sydney (B.Sc. Hons I), the University of California at Berkeley (Ph.D.) and the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School. He brings to the company high level management expertise and a track record of prior exploration success.

Russell Meares is a geologist with over 30 years experience in mineral exploration and mining. He has worked extensively in both technical and management roles throughout Australia, Asia and the South West Pacific and his experience ranges from project generation through to ore reserve estimation and economic evaluation. He played a key role in the discovery of the Golden Grove base metals deposit in Western Australia, the Keremenge gold deposit in Papua New Guinea and the Banana Creek gold prospect in Fiji. His expertise relates particularly to epithermal gold deposits, polymetallic volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits and copper-gold deposits of porphyry style, in eastern Australia and the Pacific Islands.

Mr Meares is a graduate of the University of NSW (B.Sc. Hons I) and James Cook University of North Queensland (M.Sc.). He brings to the company extensive hands-on experience in all aspects of exploration management, exploration technology and the geology of ore deposits.

Roy Randall is a former partner of the Sydney office of Stikeman, Elliott, Canada’s pre-eminent international law firm. Prior to joining Stikeman, Elliott in early 1997 he was a partner at Freehill Hollingdale and Page in Sydney. Roy has more than 35 years broad practical experience in many areas of corporate legal practice and has also worked as a merchant banker. His extensive legal experience has extended to the areas of natural resources, structuring international transactions and infrastructure development. He has previously represented both issuers and underwriters in connection with initial public offerings for gold mining companies and advised on takeovers in the mining sector.

Warren Staude has 39 years professional experience in the mining, exploration and resource finance industries. He has worked in Government, as a private consultant and on the Academic staff at Macquarie University. He later joined the AMP Society's resource investment team, where he was involved in evaluating the operational and financial performance of numerous resource operations. He also spent some time in the stockbroking industry, before joining GIO Australia Asset Management, where he managed GIO's listed and direct resource equity investments in Australia and internationally.

Mr Staude is a graduate of the University of Sydney (B.Sc., geology), Macquarie University (M.Sc., mineral economics) and holds a Graduate Diploma from the Securities Institute of Australia. He is currently the representative of the Securities Institute of Australia on the Joint Ore Reserves Committee and brings to the company a wealth of experience in the Australian financial markets.

Denis O'Neill is a geologist and has 30 years professional industry experience in mineral exploration and mining, both in Australia and abroad. He has worked in technical and management roles which include 10 years with Macmin Silver Ltd as Executive Director, 4 years as Chief Geologist for the Delta Gold Group of Companies in Australia, and 7 years directing exploration projects in Italy, Ireland and the United Arab Emirates for Noranda Mines Ltd. He directed exploration associated with the discovery of the "Reward" and "Highway" VHMS ore bodies (Charters Towers) earlier in his career and more recently the "Twin Hills" silver deposit at Texas, NSW.

Mr O'Neill is a graduate of the University of New South Wales, B.Sc. (App. Geol.) and brings to the company experience in the junior resources public company sector and particular technical expertise in exploration for silver deposits.