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ABN 23 108
161 593
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Ground?Floor, 8?Colin?Street
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West Perth??WA??6005
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Tel:?+61?8?9324?1177
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Fax:?+61?8?9324?2171
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Email:?info@mirabela..com.au
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9 July 2008
Manager Announcements
Company Announcements Office
Australian Securities
Exchange
10th Floor, 20
Bond Street
SYDNEY NSW 2000
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via electronic lodgement
MIRABELA SIGNS 5 YEAR OFFTAKE
AGREEMENT WITH VOTORANTIM
PERTH,
AUSTRALIA
Mirabela Nickel Limited (TSX: MNB, ASX: MBN) is pleased to announce it has entered into a 5 year offtake agreement with
Votorantim Metais N?quel S.A., a subsidiary of the Votorantim group.
Votorantim Metais will purchase 50% of the nickel concentrate produced at Santa
Rita until the end of 2014. The concentrate will be purchased at the mine
gate.
Production from Santa Rita is expected to start mid
2009 at a capacity of 18,500tpy of nickel in concentrate, increasing to
25,000tpy within the first year of production. Construction is about 30%
complete and the project is on schedule.
As part of the offtake arrangements, Votorantim has
agreed to provide Mirabela with a prepayment facility of US$50m, which will be
subordinated to the US$280m bank debt facility, announced separately today.
"We are delighted to have secured a Brazilian
offtake partner for 50% of our nickel sulphide concentrates," said
Managing Director, Nick Poll. "The agreement with Votorantim meets
our expectations on net payments for nickel and various credits, whilst
delivery at the mine gate is convenient for Mirabela and reduces our working
capital requirements. We believe Votorantim will be excellent offtake partners
and we welcome their participation in the Santa Rita project. The market
for nickel sulphide concentrate remains strong and we are in advanced
negotiations in respect of the remaining 50%," he said.
Votorantim is one of the largest private industrial
conglomerates in Latin America and produces about 25,000tpy of nickel from
laterite and sulphide sources within Brazil.
The concentrates will be smelted at Votorantim's Fortaleza de Minas plant in
Minas Gerais.
Nick
Poll
Craig Burton
Managing
Director
Corporate Director
Background
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 25,000 tpa by mid 2010. At this rate of
production the project will have a mine life of at least 14 years.
Photos of the construction progress are available on
the Company website at: www.mirabela.com.au/projects
Contact
details
Australia contact:
Toronto contact
(media):
Nick Poll, Managing
Director
Eric Tang, Porter
Novelli
Telephone:
+61 8 9324
1177
Telephone: +1 (416) 422-7200
nickp@mirabela.com.au
eric.tang@porternovelli.com
Australia contact (media):
Caroline de Mori, Purple
Communications
Telephone:
+61 8 9485 1254
cdemori@purplecom.com.au
***
Issued by
Purple Communications
Level 3, 28
Kings Park Road, WEST PERTH
WA 6005
Ph: 08 9485
1254 Fax: 08 6263 0455
purple@purplecom.com.au