Drilling underway at Gippsland’s Abu Dabbab project in Egypt

Perth, Australia --- MININGREVIEW.COM --- 03 September 2008 - Gippsland Limited – an Australian-based international resource company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and the AIM – has doubled the ore reserves at its US$90 million (R675 million) Abu Dabbab tantalum-tin-feldspar project in Egypt.

A company news release issued here confirmed that Abu Dabbab ore reserves had now increased from 14.60 million tonnes to 30.24 million tonnes, grading 255g/t Ta2O5 and 0.109% Sn. This represented an overall 107% increase in total ore reserves.

It added that the new ore reserves had been determined following the highly successful reverse circulation and diamond drilling programme, which had resulted in the upgrade of a substantial portion of the indicated and inferred resources to the higher indicated and measured categories. This upgrade had seen the combined indicated and measured resources increase by 30% from 25.0 million tonnes to 32.5 million tonnes, with the total mineral resources expanding to 44.5 million tonnes – an increase of 11%.

Gippsland executive chairman Jack Telford commented: “The doubling of the Abu Dabbab ore reserves from 14.6 million tonnes to more than 30 million tonnes graphically illustrates the quality of this world-scale asset. This massive increase in the project's ore reserves, plus the attractive new waste-ore ratio of 0.826 to 1, will undoubtedly provide the global tantalum market, investors and project financiers with increased confidence in the project, which is set to become a dominant player in the global tantalum supply chain,” he added.

The company news release emphasised that the new optimised pit design included only measured and indicated mineral resources, with all inferred resources located below the current pit floor. There was no internal dilution due to the even distribution of the mineralisation within the wireframe, but an allowance for 5% dilution at a zero tantalum and tin grade had been included around the margins of the deposit.