COPY OF FINAL PROSPECTUS - Mirabela Nickel

The Santa Rita Project
The Santa Rita Project is located approximately 360 kilometres south-west of Salvador and approximately
six kilometres from the town of Ipiau, having a population of 40,000 people.
The board of directors and management of the Company believe that the most significant aspects of the
Santa Rita Project are as follows:
• the site is approximately 140 kilometres by road from the Atlantic seaport of Ilheus, is within four
kilometres of a state highway and an airport and is well served with infrastructure, including a
government power grid (230kV) and access to water from the nearby Rio de Contas river system;
• the resource estimates for the Santa Rita deposit (using a Ni cut-off grade of 0.35% gabbro and
pyroxenite, 0.4% peridotite and 0.5% dunite) are as follows:
Classification Mt Ni (%) Cu (%) Co (%)
Indicated .............................. 52.4 0.62 0.15 0.016
Inferred ............................... 18.0 0.57 0.14 0.015
• the Company has a well advanced and active drilling program (370 diamond drill holes totalling
80,500 metres have been drilled to date) that management believes will result in an upgrade to the
resource estimate;
• a throughput of four million tonnes per annum has been determined to be optimal for the proposed mill;
• tests indicate that from a nickel feed grade of approximately 0.62%, a nickel concentrate grade of 13.5%
can be achieved using a conventional flotation processing system, at a recovery of between 66% and 68%;
• assuming a throughput of four million tonnes per annum, a nickel feed grade of 0.62% and a recovery of
between 67%, management believes that the Santa Rita Project will be capable of producing an average
of approximately 16,000 tonnes of nickel in concentrate per annum using a conventional flotation
processing system;
• a pit optimization study estimates the following resource within open pit limits and strip ratio:
Strip Ratio
t waste/t
potential
Classification Mt Ni (%) mill feed
Indicated ................................. 49.5 0.61 5.9
Inferred .................................. 6.2 0.55 5.9
• assuming a throughput of four million tonnes per annum, the pit optimization study also estimates that
the Santa Rita resource has the potential for a mine life of in excess of ten years;
• capital costs (including processing plant, infrastructure, port facilities, environmental commissioning, first
fills and spare parts), estimated to an accuracy of 30% and after providing for a 10% contingency, are
expected to be approximately US$223 million;
• processing costs are estimated to be US$6.77 per tonne of ore and mining costs (including a capital
expenditure of US$64 million on mining fleet) are estimated to be approximately US$1.10 per tonne of
material mined; and
• subject to a positive outcome of the BFS, management believes that it is on schedule to obtain all
requisite permits and approvals to commence construction by late 2007 and commence production in
early 2009.
The pit optimization study referred to above from which the economic analysis of the Santa Rita Project was
derived is preliminary in nature and includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative
geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as
mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the results described in the study will be realized.
9