Mirabela makes first drawing under financing package

Monday, August 4th 2008

Mirabela Nickel Limited is pleased to announce it has drawn down US$50m under the US$80m bridge financing facility recently announced with Barclays and Credit Suisse. With construction of the Santa Rita project more than 50% complete, ongoing funding of the project has moved from equity to debt.

In addition to the bridge facility, Barclays and Credit Suisse have underwritten a US$280m term loan facility to be syndicated later this year, whereupon the bridge facility will be repaid.

“Barclays and Credit Suisse have provided this bridge facility from their own balance sheets after an extensive due diligence and credit approval process. This reflects the strength of the Santa Rita project with its low capital and operating cost structure compared with other new nickel projects,” said Managing Director, Nick Poll. “Syndication of the US$280m term loan is expected to be straight-forward and will be undertaken later this year,” he said.

Mirabela Nickel Ltd is listed on the Australian and Toronto stock exchanges. With an open-cut mining reserve of 84mt grading 0.61% Ni, Santa Rita is the largest greenfields nickel sulphide discovery in the last 12 years and the third largest open-cut nickel sulphide mining reserve worldwide.

Construction of a nickel sulphide concentrator commenced in November 2007 and is progressing well. The plant is expected to produce 18,500 tpa of nickel in a sulphide concentrate from one open-cut mine starting from mid 2009 increasing to 27,000 tpa by mid 2010. At this rate of production the project will have a mine life of at least 14 years.

For further information

Australia contact: Nick Poll, Managing Director, Telephone: +61 8 9324 1177, nickp@mirabela.com.au Australia contact (media): Caroline de Mori, Purple Communications, Telephone: +61 8 9485 1254, cdemori@purplecom.com.au

Toronto contact (media): Eric Tang, Porter Novelli, Telephone: (416) 422-7200, eric.tang@porternovelli.com