Appointment of Non-executive Director

The Board of Hambledon is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Jeffrey O'Leary, aged 66, as a non-executive director with immediate effect.

Dr O'Leary has a BSc in mining geology and a PhD in geostatistics from the Royal School of Mines. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and a chartered engineer. Dr O'Leary has worked on many projects and mining operations world-wide, including with RTZ plc, where he was chief mine geologist and geostatistician, and joint author of that company's mine valuation software, before joining the HSBC Group in 1984. While working at HSBC, Dr O'Leary was involved in a wide variety of debt, equity and mergers and acquisitions transactions, including the first debt/equity swap in the mining industry, which was used to finance the start-up of operations at the Los Pelambres Mine in Chile.

Dr O'leary was until his retirement in 2005 a director of the Mining & Metals team at HSBC.  He was until 2009 a non-executive director of Moto Goldmines Ltd and is  a non-executive director of European Goldfields Ltd.  Dr O'Leary has also held a number of executive and non-executive positions on mining companies in North America, South America, Europe and Africa and was the senior lecturer in geostatistics at the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College London.  Dr O'Leary has more recently has been involved with the development of two large iron ore projects in South America and the development of new gold and base metal projects in Europe.

With Dr O'Leary on board, Chris Thomas has indicated that he will retire as a director with immediate effect. Chris, in addition to his current responsibilities as Chairman of BBDO in Asia has also been promoted to Chairman of BBDO in the Middle East and Africa and Chairman of Proximity Worldwide. His additional responsibilities make it impossible to dedicate the time needed to Hambledon's growing business.

Chris Thomas said:

"I am proud of all that Hambledon has achieved - and have enjoyed working with Nick Bridgen, George Eccles and Baurzhan Yerkeyev. I am convinced of the company's potential and look forward to it flourishing with Jeff on the board and the new leadership of Tim Daffern".

George Eccles, Chairman of Hambledon commented:

"We are delighted that Jeff has joined the board as we move towards the next phase of our operations at Sekisovskoye. He brings with him a wealth of experience in all mining matters and his background will be invaluable not only in our current operations but also in assessing any future projects in which Hambledon may get involved. Additionally he is an experienced non-executive director who can be relied upon to contribute to the board at the highest level.

"At the same time we are extremely sorry to be saying good-bye to Chris who was one of the founder directors of the Company and whose enthusiasm and commercial expertise have been an invaluable support to Hambledon for many years. He leaves with our very best wishes and thanks."

Additional information in respect of Dr O'Leary:

The directorships or partnerships held by Dr O'Leary currently or during the five years preceding the date of his appointment to the Board of Hambledon are as follows: