MEDIA STATEMENT

June 23, 2008

STRONG RESULTS EXPECTED TO DEEPEN OPEN-PIT

AND POINT TO UNDERGROUND POTENTIAL

PERTH, AUSTRALIA  Mirabela Nickel Limited (TSX: MNB, ASX: MBN) is pleased to announce further drilling results that are expected to deepen and extend its Santa Rita open-pit mine in Brazil and take the project another step closer to the possibility of developing an underground mine.

Santa Rita is set to be the third largest open-pit nickel mine in the world containing over 500,000t of contained Ni in reserves.  Mine construction is about 30% complete and production is expected to commence mid 2009. 

?The results of drilling near and below the base of the currently designed open-pit have far exceeded our expectations.  The new intersections are about three times wider, 15% higher grade, and more consistent than previous typical intersections used in the reserve estimate,? said Managing Director Nick Poll.   ?The current open-pit reserve is about 400m deep without the benefit of results as strong as these, so we can be confident that these new results will push the open-pit design deeper and increase the mining reserve,? he said.

?A second drill hole designed to test the underground mining potential at about 700m below surface, and 300m deeper than previous drilling, has returned a composite intersection of 62m at 0.95% Ni.  Our first such hole intersected 119m at 0.93% Ni.  We believe that these grades and widths are amenable to underground mining,? said Mr Poll.  ?These holes indicate that the strong mineralization encountered near the base of the current open-pit continues for at least another 300m and remains open at depth.  If so, an underground mining operation is a real possibility for Santa Rita.  We are currently using 4 rigs to drill up this underground potential.? he said.

The current pit extension drilling program is complete with only two holes awaiting assays.  A new in-pit resource estimate is expected in August, immediately upon return of these last assays.  The corresponding open-pit mining reserve is expected by September.

The full announcement and photos of the construction progress are available on the Company website at:

www.mirabela.com..au/projects_galleries.asp

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.

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

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