17 July 2008

The Manager

Company Announcements Office

ASX Limited

Level 4

20 Bridge Street

Sydney NSW 2000

JOINT ASX / MEDIA RELEASE

ACQUISITION OF TAYLOR WIMPEY

GHANAIN MINING DIVISION

Diversified mining and services company Ausdrill Limited (ASX code: ASL) announced today that it had, through its wholly-owned subsidiary African Mining Services (Ghana) Pty Ltd (AMS), entered into an agreement to acquire Taylor Wimpey?s plc Mining Division in Ghana, West Africa.

The US$20 million acquisition reinforces AMS?s position as a leading mining contracting group in West Africa.

AMS will acquire from Taylor Wimpey?s wholly-owned subsidiary, Taysec Construction Ltd, all of its mobile fleet and the mining contract for the AngloGold Ashanti-owned (Anglo) Iduapriem Gold Project in Ghana. AMS will also take over employment of the bulk of Taylor Wimpey?s staff in Ghana.

The present Iduapriem mining contract has five months to run and AMS is currently tendering on a five-year extension worth in excess of US$300 million in revenue. Taylor Wimpey will not participate in the tender and has made available to AMS all relevant information in its possession as current contractor.

Iduapriem is a major open pit gold operation located 10km south west of Tarkwa in the western region of Ghana. AMS?s major service centre is also located in Tarkwa some 3km from Iduapriem.

Ausdrill Managing Director, Mr Ron Sayers, said that, given AMS?s strong and growing relationship with Anglo, Ausdrill was confident that it would be successful in extending the contract at Iduapriem.

?Anglo and AMS are rapidly developing an excellent relationship,? Mr Sayers said.

?In June, AMS won the mining contract for the Yatela mine in Mali, which is operated by Anglo. Anglo also approved the assignment of the Iduapriem mining contract to AMS.

?The extension at Iduapriem is just one of the many contracts that AMS ? further bolstered by the Taylor Wimpey acquisition ? is well positioned to win in Africa in the next 18 months.

?Ausdrill has identified approximately $2.9 billion of work for tender in that period, including $2.5 billion for clients with whom AMS has existing relationships, which is likely to result in significantly increased revenue,? Mr Sayers concluded.

Potential Impact on Macmahon?s Unsolicited Takeover Offer

The entry into the contract constitutes a breach of a condition of the offer made by Macmahon Holdings Limited for all of the shares in Ausdrill. Notwithstanding this, the Board of Ausdrill believes that:

(a) it is in the best interests of Ausdrill and its shareholders that the agreement should be entered into;

(b) the A$10 million limit imposed by Macmahon in its bid conditions is unrealistically low given the scale of Ausdrill?s operations;

(c) the agreement is entered into in the ordinary course of business and is not commercially critical to Macmahon's Offer; and

(d) in any event Macmahon's Offer is inadequate and the Board has unanimously recommended that shareholders REJECT Macmahon?s Offer.

To date, Macmahon has reported receiving acceptances for just 0.31% of Ausdrill shares since Macmahon?s all scrip offer was announced on May 21.

Shareholders who have any questions concerning Macmahon?s Offer can call Ausdrill?s Shareholder Information Line on 1800 104 758 or from outside Australia on +61 2 8268 3691.

For further information, contact

Caroline de Mori

Purple Communications

Tel. 0418 919 064

***

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