Company News May 1999 October is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February. -- Mark Twain

By now, Shareholders of Lakes Oil will be aware of the disappointing results of the Tumuli-1 well, in which the Company held a 5% interest, which was recently drilled in the Papua New Guinea Fold Belt. For Lakes Oil to have participated in the drilling of Tumuli without having reached the target, and therefore not knowing if hydrocarbons were present or not, is a bitter blow to the Board of your Company both for the future potential of the permit in general and the Tumuli structure in particular.

However, an exploration company must continue on. We expect to have cash on hand at the end of June of approximately $1 million. With the opportunities for small exploration companies to raise further capital being particularly difficult to come by at the moment, we are investigating other methods whereby we can continue our exploration activities for the next financial year without the need for Lakes Oil to make any significant financial contribution to their cost.

We have long held the view that liquid or gas hydrocarbons have migrated onshore in the Gippsland area from Bass Strait and, as a result, we have now acquired a 100% interest in three of the principal onshore Gippsland permits, being PEP 135, PEP 136 and PEP 137, which together cover approximately 180 kilometres of Victoria’s Bass Strait coastline.

We are now in the process of finalising farmout proposals covering three wells in these permits, named "Revelation-1", "Investigator-1" and "Baudin-1", and, in the event that we are successful in completing these deals, we propose to drill the three wells back-to-back in July/August 1999.
For details, click here.

Impress Technologies Limited is acquiring a 20% interest in E-MATCH (Asia Pacific) Pte Ltd and has the right to move to 51%. E-MATCH is an e-commerce company harnessing the power of the Internet.

E-MATCH acts as an online trader of computer components, peripherals and other commodities on an enterprise to enterprise basis.

E-MATCH will issue Merritt 10% of its capital for S$320,000 payable over 24 months after issue and E-MATCH will not issue further shares without the written consent of Impress. Impress will also purchase a further 10% interest in E-MATCH from Chemspec, to be satisfied by the issue of 1,500,000 shares and 1,500,000 options in Impress.

Impress will have five years in which it may purchase a further 31% interest in E-MATCH from its other shareholders, including Chemsec. This move to 51% may only occur when the audited annual after tax profit of E-MATCH reaches S$1.0 million, the price to be negotiated then. For additional information, click here.

SMC Resources Limited (SMC) has reached agreement with Burdekin Resources NL (Burdekin) to purchase the Far Fanning Project which is situated near the Company’s Rishton CIP gold treatment plant east of Charters Towers. The Company anticipates mining 250,000 tonnes of ore at a grade in excess of 4.0 g/t gold to produce 15,000 ozpa for at least the next two years. Importantly, the additional production will lift SMC’s output to over 40,000 oz per annum and continue to reduce total costs per ounce produced. For details, click here.

The Directors of Straits Resources Limited (ASX Code: SRL) are pleased to announce that encouraging near surface leachable copper grades have been obtained from preliminary drilling at the Tottenham mining district located 120 kilometres south of Girilambone in New South Wales, Australia.

Drilling to date comprises a total of twenty-seven RC percussion holes drilled at two of the numerous targets in the project area. The results indicate near surface copper over significant widths having grades and solubilities that are comparable to those successfully mined at Girilambone. Additional drilling programmes to test the strike extents are being planned with a view to scoping these zones for economic extraction using open pit mining methods and heap leach SX/EW processing technology currently being operated by Straits at Girilambone. For details, click here.

Union Mining NL is pleased to announce that its subsidiary Union Technologies Limited has signed agreements to acquire a strategic 20% equity interest in the Internet security product Identikey for a consideration of $1 million, of which $500,000 will be settled by the issue of 14,241,572 shares and 7,120,786 options (exercisable at 20 cents on or before 31/1/2002) in Union Mining to the unrelated vendor, and $500,000 will be provided as working capital injection into the Identikey business to establish marketing operations in Australia, Europe and the United States. Union Mining’s Managing Director, Mr Robert Murdoch has been invited to become a Director of Identikey International Pte Ltd, the holding company for Identikey Pty Ltd.
Identikey is an innovative product that has been accepted by major corporations around the world to secure sensitive information placed on the Internet. For details, click here.

Anvil has acquired 20% of Ghana gold miner, Bogoso Gold. Bogoso operates the 100,000 ounce/year Bogoso gold mine in the Ashanti gold belt. Anvil is being funded into its 20% interests by Canadian-based Golden Star Resources. Golden Star is picking up a 70% interest in the Bogoso mine and will also receive 7 million options from Anvil.

Anzoil has acquired a 3.15% stake in Cue and has entered into agreements with National Provident Fund of PNG to purchase its stake in a move that would give Anzoil a 23.7% stakein Cue. The market hopes to gain an insight into Anzoil's plans for Cue following a meeting this morning between the companies' chairmen.

Chief Executive Paul Anderson has flagged up to $2 billion in asset sales in the next financial year, telling fund managers in the US the company will be "less weighted in steel, more weighted in petroleum" within 12 months.

Bolnisi has completed a US$5 million project finance facility with Macquarie bank for use on its Quartzite gold project in Georgia - a 2mtpy heap leach operation expected to produce about 88,000 ounces of gold/year at a cash cost of US$151/ounce.

Cluff says its share offer has closed fully subscribed, receiving aplications in excess of the 56 million shares. The first 28 million shares were allotted on Friday with the balance to be allotted subject to shareholder approver.

Australia's gold production in the March quarter fell from 81.2 tonnes in the December quarter to 75.2 tonnes - mainly due to adverse weather conditions (Cyclones Elaine & Vance) in WA.

Recent testing of the Vaal River gravels on the historic Pniel Estate in South Africa has yielded 44 carats of mostly gem quality diamonds, returning an average value of $700/carat.

Chairman Terry Morris says Monto is planning to get into production at its Monto ilmenite deposit in Qld, by this time next year - finance permitting.

Paladin has announced a 96% take-up of its entitlement issue. Paladin raised $1.48 million and will use the funds to advance its flagship Manyingee uranium project.

Minorco, an arm of South African Anglo American Corp, has enterd into a JV with Talon to explore for gold and base metals in the Mt Barker region in WA. Minorco can earn up to 80%, in stages, by spending $5 million over 7 years. Minorco can earn 51% by spending a minimum $1 million over 3 years.

Cultus has formally rejected a 66cents/share takeover offer from Austrian oil group OMV.

World gold demand soared 62% in the first quarter of 1999, boosted by a 75% jump in jewellery demand and a 20% rise in investment demand. The World Gold Council said the demand of 788 tonnes is only 2% below the all-time record.

Hargraves is moving to compulsorily acquisition of DMR after winning more than 91.2%. Hargraves has appointed 3 members to the DMR board, including 2 from South African miner Durban Roodepoort Deep. DRD has been given a provisional listing on the Stock Exchange.

Pasminco expects to have some news by July on the sale of coal assets obtained via its $452 million takeover of Savage Resources.
Pasminco will also release a memo on the sale of its 49% stake in the Ernest Henry gold-copper mine in QLD.

Walhalla stock soared 130% to 90 cents on its relisting yesterday after its February suspension at 39 cents over acquiring Internet filter firm Kidz.net. It closed at 72 cents.

Ashton has received a higher-than-expected price for the first diamond sale from its Merlin diamond mine in the NT. An average price of US$133/carat was achieved, well above the US$76/carat obtained during earlier bulk-sampling programs.

ASIC has warned mining companies acquiring Internet and technology assets that they will be scrutinised over their radical change in busines, amid concern shareholders have got inadequate information.

Comalco has appointed Allgas as an agent to negotiate the price for PNG gas piped down the proposed QLD gas pipeline.

HIGHLIGHTS - MARCH QUARTER:

• The Company entered into an Option and JV Agreement with the Granny Smith JV partners. The 3 year Option Agreement requires the incoming party to maintain title to the tenement, and, if exercised, pay Marymia $135,000 and to fund all further exploration expenditure to 'Decision to Mine' by production of a 'bankable' feasibility study. Marymia retains a 20% interest in the Project.
• For the Irwin Bore JV, negotiations are advanced to modify the terms and conditions of the JV Agreement previously between Marymia and Aberfoyle. The Aberfoyle interest is being purchased by PacMin Mining Corp Ltd, an established gold mining company.

Gold production fell 6.9% in the March quarter, compared to the preceding quarter, to 100.1 tonnes.

Union Mining NL (Union) announces that it has incorporated a wholly owned public company subsidiary Union Technologies Limited, to evaluate information technology projects with a view to the company making strategic investments in this industry. The Company is currently evaluating several investment opportunities with negotiations to continue over the next week or so. For details, click here.

Anaconda plans to double its shares on issue (to 288 million) later this month by offering shareholders a 1-for-1 share entitlement. Shareholders would receive the new shares by 28 May, a move that will make it easier for the stock to trade. The issue comes after Canadian company, Sherritt International, took a 9% stake in Anaconda last week, paying $52 million for 12.8 million shares.

BHP is rumoured to be close to finalising a deal on its North American copper assets from its $3 billion purchase of Magma Copper in 1996.

Victoria's largest electricity generation company, LYP, has blamed the behaviour of NSW power companies operating 'uncommercially' for it missing a payment on its debt. Chief executive Ian Nethercote says national electricity prices are at unsustainable levels.

SOG has agreed to acquire the outstanding 50% of the Butcher's Well JV for $14 million in cash plus additional royalty payments. The agreement covers the Red October (2.1Mt @ 5.8 g/t Au, including reserves of 600,000 tonnes @ 6.7 g/t) and Butchers Well-Yundamindera (4.29 MT @ 2.1 g/t Au) deposits which contain about 680,000 ounces of gold, the Harbour Lights plant and 450 sq. km of exploration licences in the Laverton Tectonic Zone.

Western Minerals is to be renamed Adultshop.com and will pay $200,000 cash for Barbarella's Internet marketing rights. It also plans to raise $4 million to develop the Web-based business by way of the issue of 20 million shares at 20 cents each - with a free option attached. The move follows a deal in March with the Barbarella's chain of adult stores to market its range of 'erotic toys, videos, CD's, lingerie and adult publications'over the Internet.

Aquarius has issued Impala Platinum (Implats) with 3.72 million shares, equating to a 12.8% stake in the company.

BHP has reported lower iron ore, steel, copper and oil and condensate production in April. However. total gold output rose 8% to 60,111 ounces and diamond production from its Ekati mine in Canada increased to 108,000 carats.

Black Range has arranged a $10 million loan with Canadian Imperial Bank; the money will be used to complete a full feasibility study on its laterite nickel/cobalt project in NSW. The study is expected to be completed next April and will examine an operation producing 15,800 tonnes of nickel and 4000 tonnes of cobalt a year.

Austrian company OMV AG has slammed an independent valuation of Cultus (see report 18 May).

Defiance has raised $1.22 million for ongoing work at its Mathinna gold project in Tasmania. The raising folowed the successful placement of 20 million shares @ 3 cents each, and subscriptions for 21.54 milion shares @ 3 cents each, all with attaching options exercisable @ 2 cents by 30 June, 2003.

GPG is proceeding with the development of its $92 million Gabanintha vanadium project near Meekatharra in WA - planned to produce 5200tpy with production starting in 2003. GPG is in the process of raising about $3 million from a share placement to take the company through to the final feasibility.
Meanwhile, the nearby Windimurra vanadium deposit being developed by Precious Metals Australia, is about 40% complete and proceeding on schedule.

HW says gross savings of around $10 million should result from a restructure of its contracting division following its $116 million merger with Eltin. The merger has resulted in the loss of 110 jobs - mainly administrative and management.

CIBC has been appointed to represent Niugini Mining in an attempt to resolve the complex share ownership of Lihir. Battle Mountain has a 50.5% stake in Niugini, which in turn has a 17.15% stake in Lihir, which it wants to sell. Canadian Vengold's 9% stake may come on the market in August when it has significant debt repayments.

Tin Australia (formerly Norminco) has raised $1.82 million and is likely to re-list on the ASX next Tuesday. Tin Australia set out to raise $5.2 million. Tin Australia is expected to quickly resume tin production in the Mt Garnet region in north QLD.

Austrian company OMV AG's takeover bid for Cultus received a setback yesterday when major shareholder (Fay Richwhite Holdings of NZ - through Midavia Holdings - 21%) said it would not accept the offer on the grounds that it 'grossly undervalued it'. Independent expert Grant Samuel valued Cultus at $1.04-A$1.39 a share, with a mid-point of A$1.21 - 55 cents above the offer price.

GTR said it has chosen the Latrobe Valley in VIC as the preferred site for a $700 million, 80,000tpy magnesium metal plant. A final feasibility study would not be undertaken until the end of next year with production envisaged in late 2003.

IMR has placed 20 million ordinary shares at A$0.10 per share for a total of $2 million. The financing was arranged by Baron Partners Ltd and the funds will be used for the completion of the acquisition of a 10% equity in Amcom Pty Ltd for $2 million. Amcom is a Perth-based company whose core business was the provision of cabling services, before being granted a carrier license from the Australian Communications Authority in July 1998.
Amcom recently completed the roll-out of the first stage of an advanced fibre-optic network in the Perth CBD and is now commencing carrier services.

Newcrest is to farm into Platsearch's Broken Hill porphyry copper-gold project in QLD and SA by spending $1.5 million on exploration to earn an 80% interest.

Rio Tinto will merge its NSW coal assets with those of its 70% owned subsidiary CAIL, effective 1 July.
CAIL has also signed a heads of agreement with Mitsubishi Development to acquire its 40% interest in both the Howick mine and the Oaklands coal resource.
The union would leave Rio with 70.9% of CAIL, Mitsubishi with 8.2% and coal customer Ube Industries with 8.2%

After completing due diligence, Triton has cancelled plans to acquire 50% of on-line service provider Blast Media Pty Ltd for $2 million, but has won the Australian rights to market SAFLINK products via E-Commerce. SAFLINK is the developer of an on-line verification system using fingerprints, voice and facial characteristics.
Triton will issue 20 million shares to SAFLINK, pending shareholder approval at an EGM scheduled for 25 June.

Stephen Miller has been appointed chairman of St Barbara Mines. CVG is the vehicle for the rescue of St Barbara Mines, and Miller hopes to build the CVG shareholding to 19.9% and to keep the troubled St Barbara afl;oat by treating low-grade stockpiles until a profitable way can be found to begin mining again.

Fimiston is consolidating its shares on a 1 new share-for every 3 held. The consolidation will be followed by a pro-rata options issue on a 1-for-2 basis. The options cost 2 cents and will raise $351,000 for working capital. A further $337,000 is to be raised by the placement of options to replace the current June 30, 1999 series.

Director Meg Taylor has been appointed as the first compliance adviser/ombudsperson of the private sector arm of the World bank's International Finance Corp.

Director Steven Dean has been appointed as president and chief executive of Canada's Teck Corp's gold division. Teck merged its Australian gold interests last year with Camelot Resources to form Pacmin. Pacmin has annual production of nearly 350,000 ounces of gold. A float of Teck's global gold interests would be considered.

Drilling problems have forced Santos to plug and abandon Tumuli#1 well in PNG.

Sovereign has appointed BHP's Peter Moore as its new head of marketing. Sovereign is developing a $78 million manganese project to produce 15,000 tonnes of electrolytic manganese dioxide/year.

Shaw Stockbroking issues a short-term BUY recommendation for Straits. For details, click here.

Victoria Petroleum is seeking a Farminee for its forthcoming Cadart-1 exploration well in New Caledonia.

BHPP said its Angostura-1 well had struck natural gas off the coast of Trinidad and it was about to start drilling another well nearby. Angostura-1 flowed natural gas at a stabilised rate of 30 million cubic ft/day.

The Brisbane refinery will operate at less than 55% capacity in May - due to an unscheduled shutdown of the catalytic cracker.

Centaur has partially restructured its gold hedge book, unlocking $47.31 million. The proceeds will be used for new projects associated with the company's gold and nickel operations.

ASARCO has approached EM to negotiate the rights to market the company's technology (recovering metals from mine waste heaps) in North America. ASARCO is undertaking a pilot program utilising EM's technology at a plant ain Texas. EM is currently seeking a funds injection of $1 million to boost its resource base and better market its products.

EDUCATION ONLINE NETWORK

Merritt Mining NL (in transition to Impress Technologies Limited) previously announced that it had secured the rights to a substantial shareholding in Virtual Learning Network Pty Ltd ("VLN") which will operate the Education Online Network ("EON").
EON will provide tertiary education and training using multimedia content delivered via satellite, datacast and Internet platforms to students in South East Asia and around the globe.
The purchase was originally secured by a Letter of Intent, subject to a due diligence period that has just been concluded. Merritt has today purchased a 15% interest in VLN for $400,000. Additional funds, if required prior to VLN's first revenue, are guaranteed by the principals of VLN. If VLN raises new capital from third parties, Merritt's interest in VLN will be maintained at 15% until VLN seeks public funding for an IPO, by the issue of additional shares in VLN at no further cost to Merritt.
The original Letter of Intent committed Merritt to spend $850,000 with the option to provide a further $730,000 as equity in and loans to VLN. The acquired 15% interest is less than Merritt first announced and at a lower price per percentage point. The investment in VLN was renegotiated because the due diligence investigations showed that EON requires less capital than first indicated prior to the first revenue from its tertiary courses. In addition, Merritt has limited its financial risk in VLN. This allows Merritt more freedom to invest in other Internet related projects, plus E-commerce applications that are being developed in-house. For additional details, click here.

Union Mining NL announces the resignations of Victor Harvey Bradley and John Edward Fletcher as directors of the company. Messrs Bradley & Fletcher are directors of Yamana Resources Inc of Canada and were nominated to go onto Union’s Board principally as a result of Yamana taking a substantial shareholder position in Union Mining NL. This shareholding has now been sold in a management buyout. For additional information, click here.

We refer to your letter today in which ASX has noted a change in price of Merritt’s shares from 17 cents on 12 May 1999 to a high of 22 cents today.
Merritt is in transition to Impress Technologies Limited and as such has information technology, communications and resource (mainly gold) investments and projects.

• The CIP mill at Wattle Gully continued to operate well and treated 4,473 tonnes of high grade ore for Reef Mining NL under the dry toll treating arrangement.
• Reef Mining NL exercised the option to extend the milling contract until 26 August 1999 and have two further six month options enabling them to process ore at the plant until 26 August 2000.

• RC drilling programs for 3,700m have been approved for Reichelt's Find in May 1999 under the joint venture agreement with Johnson's Well Mining NL.
• Further drilling is planned for Victory Cross once the drilling at Reichelt's Find is completed.

For complete details of the March Quarterly Report, click here.

The second bench scale, column leach test, of silver bearing mineralised rock from the Twin Hills Project at Texas, has supported the favourable results of the initial column test (reported April 6), with a recovery of 82% silver . This result is highly encouraging with respect to the future commercial development of a silver (heap leach) mine at Texas. For details, click here.

HIGHLIGHTS - MARCH QUARTERLY REPORT

• Year to date unaudited nett profit of $0.72 million.
• Costs per ounce produced continue to decline - March quarter Cash Operating Cost of $378.28 per ounce; Total Cost of $422.18 per ounce.
• Increased gold production - March quarter production of 7,935 oz up from December quarter of 5,994 oz.
• SMC conditionally agrees to acquire Australian Resource Management (A.R.M.) Pty Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of listed Canadian explorer, Western Pacific Gold Inc.

For details of the March Quarterly Report, click here.

Stockbroker Hartley Poynton issues a SPECULATIVE BUY for Beaconsfield Gold. For details, click here.

BHP has announced a preferred bidder - Peabody Resources - for its 80% stake in the Moura open-cut coal mine.

North plans to cut the workforce at its Iron Ore Co of Canada subsidiary by 25% - a move expected to cut production costs by US$5/tonne.

HIGHLIGHTS - MARCH QUARTER:

Hodgkinson Gold Project -

• Results of last dry season's exploration work and Landsat / Spot image interpretation have resulted in a number of new target zones for evaluation.

Yarrol Gold Project -

• Drilling has extended the gold resource beyond the current potential pit outline at Yarol North and remains open ended toward the north with possible en echelon repititions of the mineralisation.

Mount Steadman Gold Project -

• Geochemical stream sediment sampling located anomalous gold values in streams draining the contact zones of the granites. These require follow-up investigation.
• Geological mapping has provided a better understanding of the controls on mineralisation at the Fitzroy Prospect, resulting in better targeting of mineralised repetitions in the future.

BHP is to downsize its North American research and exploration activities. It will close its San Francisco office and consolidate its North American functions into a single centre at Houston, Texas. BHP is understood to have slashed its global mineral exploration budget by more than 50%.

HIGHLIGHTS - MARCH QUARTER

• The Mount Mackenzie alteration and gold mineralisation system has been extended further westwards under the cover sequence. This is considered to be an important exploration target and one of the larger alteration systems in eastern Australia. The recent drilling program has greatly extended the potential search area for gold mineralisation on the western side.
• An intersection of 108 m @ 0.27% Cu has confirmed that the Waitara Porphyry may have the potential to host a large scale porphyry copper system.

Eastern Gold Corp has agreed to fund the launch of online search engine 131shop.com.au. EGC will subscribe for a $900,000 convertible notes from 131shop.com.au Ltd, convertible to a 10% stake in the company, which plans to release a prospectus for an initial public offering of $4 million this month.

Normandy may sell its stake in 2 Canadian mines (Britannia and Musselwhite) obtained as part of a new alliance with Canadian group TVX Gold Inc.

North may outsource some of its assets, particularly in the forestry division, power stations and railways. North has earmarked cost savings of $130 milion for 1999-00.

BHP has revealed it will cost the company more than $700 million to close its Newcastle steel manufacturing operations.

TAMPA, FL ...TRADEX Technologies, the leading provider of marketplace and exchange software that streamlines the commerce process, today announced the launch of a new vertical industry electronic marketplace powered by TRADEX software, as HOTS e-commerce (HOTS) successfully concluded its pilot phase and commenced live operations.

HOTS e-commerce is an independently operated Internet marketplace facilitating trade among members of the hospitality industry and associated industries throughout Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific region. HOTS members include major food and liquor producers and distributors as well as other hospitality product producers and distributors.

The HOTS vertical marketplace was created with TRADEX Commerce Center^TM software and Sun Microsystems hardware. With Commerce Center, HOTS enables many different types of hospitality companies to establish their own virtual marketplace up and down the supply chain to customers and suppliers.

Shares in IMR almost doubled (from 5.8 cents to 10 cents) on heavy turnover after the company announced it would acquire a 10% stake in fibre-optic telecommunications carrier Amcom for $2 million - from Unity Telecommunications.

According to investment house Merrill Lynch, Oil Search is expected to post a significant jump in production and profit in 1999.

HIGHLIGHTS - MARCH QUARTERLY REPORT

• Ross Mining's gold deliveries for the quarter totalled 40,856 ounces of gold. Group year to date deliveries now stand at 115,048 ounces at an average cash cost of A$288 (US$184).
• The Group quarterly gold deliveries were sold at A$530 per ounce or A$76 above the average spot price
• Gold Ridge delivered 27,624 ounces at a cash cost of A$298 (US$190).
• The resources and reserves of the Gold Ridge project have increased by 50%. Ore reserves now stand at over 2.0 million ounces.
• The Timbarra Gold Mine poured its first commissioning gold bar. The mine is now fully operational.
• The Gold Ridge plant is scheduled to be upgraded by the end of this calendar year to 3.4mtpa for annual gold production of 160,000 ounces.
• Yandan delivered 13,232 ounces of gold at a cash cost of A$370 (US$237) during the last full quarter. Year to date gold deliveries now exceed forecast by more than 50%.
• The relocation of the plant from Yandan to Wirralie is in full progress with the first gold pour scheduled for July, 1999.
• Encouraging drilling results were obtained at Wirralie including:

  14 metres @ 8.86 g/t
  17 metres @ 3.5 g/t

• The Group's hedging position was restructured, realising significant long term value.
• Ross Mining's ore reserves now total 2.6 million contained ounces.

For complete details of the March Quarterly Report, click here.

Santos is cautiously upbeat about its 1999 outlook, with oil prices on the rise from a 12-year low and production on target for a record high.

Peter Duncan has been appointed as the new chief executive - as from 1 July. Mr Duncan will continue Shell Australia's attack on costs and performance in a bid to reap better returns in a weakened oil environment.

According to BHP, the Japanese steel industry will continue to face difficulties this year and steel production there will fall.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE MARCH QUARTER

• Acquisition of 100% interest in the leading edge internet software company HOTS e-commerce Pty Ltd, formerly known as Hospitality Open Trading Systems Pty Ltd ("HOTS").
• Commencement of technology revenue generation by the sale of end user software licences and transaction fees through customers in the hospitality industry, including liquor and food groups.
• Negotiation of an option to acquire up to a 100% interest in the Arthur River and Beryl Hill tantalite-columbite projects, near Gascoyne Junction in Western Australia, from Rare Resources NL.
• Completion of milling of 43,620 tonnes of Karonie Main Zone ore from underground operations by Barminco Pty Ltd, for a 95.4% recovered grade of 4.29 gpt Au. Border is to receive a royalty payment of $40 per ounce, amounting to $240,630 for the 6,016 ounces produced.

March quarter production from thr Reward pit totalled 128,600 tonnes of concentrate grading 29.4% Cu, 3.3 g/t Au and 65 g/t Ag, in addition to 10,120 ounces of gold and 24,200 ounces of silver frpom processed oxide ore.

Hargraves has won the battle for DMR with the DMR board urging acceptance of the offer.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE MARCH QUARTER

Manso Nkwanta Project, Ghana

RC drilling results for the quarter, including 22m @ 10g/t, 14m @ 8.5g/t, 28m @ 5g/t, 26m @ 4.4g/t and 24m @ 3.7g/t Au from Abore North and 10m @ 6.2g/t, 15m @ 2.3g/t and 20m @ 2.0g/t Au from Edubia-Asuadai continue to underline the prospectivety of the area. A number of holes on both prospects ended in mineralisation.

A pre-feasibility study in progress during the period is scheduled for completion in early May.

A resource upgrade for the Abore North prospect resulted in indicated and inferred resources totalling 412,000oz of gold using a 0.7g/t Au cut-off, up from 295,000oz in the March 1998 estimate.

Korhogo, Côte d'Ivoire

Ashanti Goldfields Company Limited has farmed into the Korhogo prospect in Côte d'Ivoire. Soil sampling, pitting and trenching financed by Ashanti during the period has continued to highlight the potential of the prospect.

Tengrela, Côte d'Ivoire

Randgold Resources Limited has completed the target generation phase of its exploration. Numerous structural targets and geochemical anomalies have been identified for follow-up exploration work.

Fundraising

A $3,200,000 rights issue undertaken in the period was completed in April.

PLANS FOR THE JUNE 1999 QUARTER

A feasibility study on the Abori prospect is scheduled to commence, with completion of the feasibility study planned for August.

A RAB drilling program is proposed for the Korhogo concession. Randgold will be continuing its exploration of the Tengrela concessions in northern Côte d'Ivoire.

First pass reconnaissance programs are to be carried out on the Tamankaya prospect in Guinea and the Kabolo permit in Burkina Faso.

For complete details of the March Quarterly Report, click here.

Anvil's hopes of developing its $50 million Dikilushi copper-silver project in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been boosted, following a peace accord between DRC and Uganda - a significant step towards political settlement.

Aquarius has released a new resource estimate for its Marikana platinum project in South Africa - now 19 million tonnes @ 4.4 g/t Pt equivalent (1.6 million ounces of platinum and 800,000 ounces of palladium) attributable to Aquarius.

Meekatharra has secured a placement of 15 million shares @ 14 cents each to raise $2.17 million for the development of its multi-billion-dollar South Australian steel project. A demonstration plant would be built. A commitment to a 2.5 mtpy steel plant was expected in 2000.

Sovereign is to develop its $78 million SRDC manganese project in WA following positive results from the feasibility study.

Tectonic has 'reactivated' its stalled RAV8 nickel project in WA following the improved nickel price, and says negotiations are being held with 'selected' financial institutions regarding potential funding for the project..

Western Reefs is expected to develop an underground mining operation at its Dalgaranga gold deposit in WA following high-grade results from a deep drilling program. Better intersections included 12.8 m @ 23.79 g/t Au, 2m @ 260 g/t Au, 12.25m @ 12.41 g/t Au, and 3m @ 3.18 g/t Au.

SUMMARY - MARCH QUARTERLY REPORT:

• Copper cathode production of 5,829 tonnes.
• Record coal production of 444,200 tonnes.
• Encouraging signs from drilling programme completed at Tottenham Joint Venture.
• Bank debt reduced by $3.89 million from proceeds of disposal of shares in Hargraves Resources NL.
• Sale of Whim Creek Project terminated.
• Copper hedging covers 26,600 tonnes.
• Foreign currency (US$) hedging covers US$114.4 million.

For complete details of the March Quarterly Report, click here.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE MARCH 1999 QUARTER

IRAN

• Activity this quarter has centred on Iran where the Company is one of the first to seek mineral opportunities in response to positive moves from the Islamic Republic to encourage international investment within the mineral industry. To date, the Company has been seeking investments in Iran through its 50% owned Union Itok International AG (UII), but under agreement reached recently with its partners in UII, Union Mining will also seek out direct investment opportunities as well.
• During the quarter, UII's wholly owned Iranian subsidiary, Queshm Union Itok International AG (QUII), signed a Letter of Understanding with the Geological Survey Branch of the Ministry of Mines and Metals. This agreement gives QUII exclusive exploration access to 1,730 km ² over five areas of the Central Iran Volcanic belt in the Northern and Central part of Iran. The areas selected are considered highly prospective for copper and gold.
• UII reached agreement with the Ministry of Mines and Metals Titanium Project Team on the commercial terms relating to a Joint Venture on the world class Kahnooj Titanium Project in Southern Iran. The Joint Venture agreement is currently progressing through the Ministry's legal branch. Kahnooj is a world class ilmenite deposit.
• A similar agreement has been reached between UII and the Mehdiabad Project Team on a Joint Venture over the Mehdiabad Lead-Zinc Project in Central Iran. The draft agreement is currently with the Ministry of Mines & Metals. Mehdiabad is a world class lead-zinc deposit.

NORTH QUEENSLAND

• During the quarter, the Company signed an option agreement with Van Hoboken Pty Ltd and Hyland Corporation Pty Ltd covering the Company's Georgetown tenements and assets in North Queensland. The purchase option is exercisable on or before the 31 ^st of July 1999 but can be extended to the 31 ^st of December 1999 with Union Mining NL's approval. The exercise price is $2.05 million net in cash. The sale of the project is dependent on a successful capital raising by the option holders.

For complete details of the March Quarterly Report, click here.