Company Information for Noventa Limited

AIM-NVTA

www.noventa.net

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AIM; NVTA

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Company Statement

Noventa Limited is set to become one of the world’s largest, lowest cost industrial scale suppliers of tantalum concentrate, a specialty metal widely used in the consumer electronics industry.

The group was formed in 2001 to explore, develop and operate mineral titles in Mozambique. Noventa Limited is a Jersey based company listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market. Its main operational arm is Highland African Mining Company which in turn maintains subsidiaries in South Africa (HAMC Project Services (Pty) Ltd), Jersey (Speciality Minerals Corporation Limited) and Mozambique (Highland African Mining Company Limitada).

The company has two key mining projects in north eastern Mozambique: The Marropino tantalum mine and processing plant; and the fast track development of its Morrua concession. The new plant at Marropino was commissioned in 2007 and production has already been ramped up with an expected annualized run rate of more than 420,000lb of tantalum concentrate by early 2008. The next mine under development is Morrua which is currently at its advanced engineering stage. Noventa expects the first production from Morrua, which will have a similar capacity to Marropino, in early 2009.

Noventa intends to use its large tantalum deposits and its low cost base to take advantage of the current supply shortfall and growing global demand for tantalum. Once the Morrua mine comes into production in 2009, the group will be the second largest primary producer of tantalum in the world, with a 20% market share based on current global output projections. Noventa is also confident that they can produce a high quality product to a consistent specification.

Noventa has so far invested US$65 million in its operations in Mozambique and expects this to grow by at least US$50 million over the next 18 months.

Current Operations

Noventa’s assets include mining permits and exploration licenses for Marropino, Morrua, Mutala, Ginama and Gile sites covering an area of 21,000ha, located in the world-renowned Alto Ligonha pegmatite province of north eastern Mozambique. Marropino and Morrua are currently active mining sites.

Commercial mining of these mineralized pegmatites started in the 1930s, mainly for muscovite and beryl. Exploitation of tantalite was sporadic through the 1950s and 1960s, with a significant amount of geological and geophysical studies being carried out during the 1980s by Russian, East German and United Nations teams. Past open-pit mining by the Portuguese and Eastern Bloc countries took place mainly in the weathered zone, which was more easily worked, leaving the hard rock for present-day mining.

Current reserves/resources at four of the 12 concessions held by Noventa total 29 Mt containing about 19Mlb of Ta2O5 at an average grade of 296ppm, with exploration projects expected to add to this base over time.

MARROPINO
The Marropino mine is the Group’s most developed project and the only industrial-scale tantalum mine in operation in Mozambique. It lies 350km north east of the provincial capital, Quelimane. The area is relatively remote, given that virtually all supplies have to come from South Africa. Marropino concentrate is transported across Southern Africa for shipping via Walvis Bay in Namibia.
Noventa is employing open pit mining, using conventional truck and shovel methods. The optimized pit contains 7.8 Mt of ore with an average grade of 288 ppm tantalum. At the current feed rate of 108,000 t/mth, Marropino has a remaining life-of-mine in excess of six years.

Considerable enhancements were made to the processing plant in the second half of 2007 and a new mining fleet acquired. Production is planned to be 420,000-550,000 lb/y of tantalum.

Electrical power is generated on site. A government electrification programme to provide grid power to Marropino and Morrua has also been initiated and is targeted for completion by the middle of 2008. This will further lower the company’s cost of production, already estimated to be one of the lowest in the world of an industrial-scale producer.

Noventa employs 420 people at the mine, drawn mostly from the surrounding community. As the company is the only significant provider of formal employment within 300 km of the mine, it plays a crucial role in the continued development of the local community.

CORPORATE SOCIAL INVESTMENT
Noventa has just finished building the first school in the area and a medical clinic is due to be completed early in 2008. Employees and their families, in emergencies, have access to the on-site paramedic and benefit from the malaria monitoring and treatment programme run at the Marropino mine. Additionally, boreholes have been drilled to provide fresh, running water to the local village near the mine.

MORRUA
The Morrua mine, located on the right bank of the Melela River, just 40 km from Marropino, is currently being developed and production is expected to commence in 2009. Indicated resources of tantalum are 5.23 million pounds and inferred are 2.7 million pounds. A conventional open-pit operation is proposed and a plant will be built to produce more than 450,000lb/y of tantalum concentrate over the estimated 13 year mine life.

EXPLORATION
The neighbouring mineral titles areas provide further concession areas for exploration and Noventa is actively engaged in the exploration and evaluation of its other Mozambican properties. Mutala, as was the case for Marropino and Morrua, was previously mined on a small scale from the 1950s to 1980s. Following nationalization in 1979 and the onset of civil war, mining operations would have become progressively more difficult until they were eventually abandoned in the mid 1980s. The title areas at this site lie in the Alto Molocue District of the Zambezia Province approximately 175 km south of Nampula and north of Marropino and Morrua. This exploration site has inferred resources of 5.3 million pounds of tantalum.

At Mutala further pitting, trenching and sampling are underway. This will be supported by a drilling programme in due course following the imminent arrival of the drill rig. This work will materially assist in the firming up of the currently-known ore resource and allow the development of this property to be fast-tracked.

Evaluation work is also in the planning stages for both the Ginama (approximately 60km south west of Marropino) and Gile projects, where a similar programme to Mutala is envisaged.

These activities, along with the ongoing evaluation of new properties, should result in a continuing pipeline of projects, which will ensure Noventa’s long-term engagement in the tantalum business.

MOZAMBIQUE
Mozambique has experienced one of the world’s fastest growing economies over the past five years, with its real GDP growth averaging more than 8% over the past decade, decreasing inflation and sustained political stability. Growth has been driven primarily by foreign-financed ‘mega-projects’ in mining, energy and infrastructure, such as BHP Billiton’s Mozal aluminum project, CVRD’s Moatize coal project and Kenmare Resources plc’s Moma mineral-sands operation.

A further law was introduced in 2002, strengthening the toe holder’s security of tenure and setting the royalty payable on tantalum at 3%. Mozambique strongly promotes foreign direct investment in its mining industry by offering a favorable fiscal regime as part of the mining contract concluded with the government. As a result, Marropino is benefitting from a 50% reduction in the corporate tax rate until 2012 and exemption from withholding taxes and import duties.

Geographical Spread

Mozambique

Board of Directors and Key Management

DIRECTORS

Clinton Wood (Executive Chairman)

Clinton qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen in Johannesburg. In 1988 he joined Investec where he spent 15 years in various senior roles including Head of Investment Banking and Corporate Finance, and then the Head of Debt Origination and Trading. He lead the team that was responsible for building the bank’s stock-broking business before taking over as Head of Equity Sales For the past three years Clinton has been Chief Executive Officer of a Swiss based family owned direct investment business. He has acted as the Company’s Non Executive Chairman until accepting the appointment as Executive Chairman in September 2007.

Dr John Herselman (Chief Executive)

John studied Chemical Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand, graduating in 1965. After working as a Production Engineer at Iscor, he then moved to Germany where he studied Metallurgy at the Technical University of Aachen and was awarded a doctorate in Metallurgy of Nuclear Fuels in 1972. After returning to South Africa he was appointed Principal Engineer at Uranium Enrichment Corporation and subsequently joined Lurgi South Africa. In 1982 he joined Edward L Bateman Group as the Managing Director of its South African subsidiary, Bateman Engineering. He soon expanded the basis of operations from mining and minerals to include oil, gas, chemicals and energy. In 1986 he was made a full Director of Edward L Bateman, then joint Managing Director in 1988 and was further promoted to Chief Executive Officer of Bateman Project Holdings Ltd in 1989. After the sale of the Bateman Projects Holdings Ltd to the Beny Steinmetz Group, Dr Herselman remained a Director of Edward L Bateman which changed its name to ELB Group where he has been a Non-Executive Director since 2002. From 2004 till joining Noventa, he worked as an independent project initiator and facilitator.

Martin Hinxman (Chief Financial Officer)

Martin is a graduate of Rhodes University and is a member of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants. He has in excess of 20 years experience in the manufacturing, heavy industrial and mining industries. He has worked in a senior executive role at Consolidated Metallurgical Industries Limited, JCI Limited, JCI Projects (Pty) Limited and MRI Criticare (Pty) Limited, before joining the Group in 2002.

Professor Taole Mokoena (Non-Executive Director)

Professor Mokoena is a medical graduate of the University of Natal, South Africa, PhD graduate of Oxford University and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. He has had considerable experiences as a Director of a number of public and unlisted companies at different times, including Johnnic, M-Cell, Ukwanda Investments and Chancellor House Holdings. He has served as Chairman on some of these Boards.

The Honourable Peregrine Moncreiffe (Non-Executive Director)

The Honourable Peregrine Moncreiffe began his career at Credit Suisse working in London, New York and East Asia over a ten year period. Following this, he became a partner of Lehman Brothers (New York) managing the US Government and Money Market trading departments, and subsequently the mortgage backed trading department. Peregrine was a managing director of EF Hutton, London in charge of international capital market activities, before co-founding Buchanan Partners Limited in 1990. He was appointed as a director of the investment manager fund, Metage Capital Limited, in November 2001.

Richard Burt (Non-Executive Director)

Richard is an engineering graduate of the Royal School of Mines. He has worked for over forty years in mineral processing of which the last thirty years he has been directly involved with tantalum. Richard is a lecturer and consultant in gravity concentration throughout the world. Richard is principal and owner of Gravita Inc, an independent consulting firm with a primary interest in minerals development projects especially those incorporating gravity concentration mining and marketing of tantalum minerals. He is also the Operations Director for Angus and Ross plc. Previously he worked for several years at Cabot Corporation where he was promoted to managing all Cabot’s mineral development interests.

Patrick Delafield (Non-Executive Director)

Patrick is a law graduate of the University of Cambridge. He has spent 37 years in the beverage business in senior positions in western and eastern Europe with Guinness and Stroh Brewery Company of Detroit. He is based in Jersey, where he has lived for 25 years. He headed up G. Orange & Co., Beverage Merchants in Jersey from 1997 to 2004 and became director of business development with Victor Hugo Wines in 2005. His current role is General Wine Trade Liaison for that company. He is president of the Leander Club.

Michael Richardson (Non-Executive Director)

Michael read law at the University of Exeter and qualified as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales and an Advocate of the Royal Court of Jersey. Michael became a Partner of Bedell Cristin in 1986 and became the Chairman and executive director of Bedell Cristin Trust Company in 2002. He has advised for over 20 years in all aspects of financial services legal work including mutual funds, trust and company matters, banking and lending advice. During his time as a lawyer in Jersey, he has served as a non-executive director on the boards of numerous mutual funds, fund management companies and other financial services businesses.

Ron Emerson (Non-Executive Director)

Ron is a non-executive director of an oil and gas exploration company and an insurance company, where he chairs both audit committees. He is also an Associate Fellow of Said Business School, University of Oxford, where he works with organisations in the areas of leadership and strategic change. He spent five years with Standard Chartered Bank where he was global head of wholesale banking and has been a senior advisor to the Bank of England.

MANAGEMENT

In addition to Clinton Wood, John Herselman and Martin Hinxman, the key personnel within the Group that will be responsible for the operation and development of the business are:

Leon Rademeyer, HND (Metallurgy) (Chief Metallurgist)

Leon has 27 years experience in the mineral processing industry. 10 years as Metallurgist advancing to Metallurgical Superintendent with Richards Bay Minerals, 7years as Sales Engineer and Metallurgical Manager with MD Mineral Technologies. In1987 he joined the Bateman Group as Senior Process Engineer concentrating on the development of industrial minerals projects such as heavy mineral sands, tantalite, andalusite and titano-magnetite. Leon joined the Group in September 2007.

David Whitehouse, BSc (Hons) Mech Eng (Chief Projects Officer)

David has 33 years experience of multi disciplinary project management and development, having been involved in the implementation of major projects from conception and feasibility study, through detail engineering and construction to completion. After 25 years in engineering contracting, David joined BHP Billiton in 2000 as Senior Manager, Project Management before moving to the Bateman Group in 2002 as Chief Operating Officer. David left Bateman at the end of 2003 to work as a consultant to the mining industry, including Noventa, before joining the Group in 2007.

Munashe Shava, HND (Mining Engineering) (General Manager : Marropino Mine)

Munashe has in excess of 10 years experience in the mining industry (i.e. gold, platinum and diamonds), having started as a graduate learner official in 1996 and worked his way up through the ranks to the position of mine manager in 2005. Munashe has also worked for Kinross Gold, Anglo American (Zimbabwe) and Zimbabwe Platinum Mines, prior to joining River Ranch Diamond Mine in 2005. He was the mine manager at River Ranch from 2005 until he joined the Group in 2007.

Evias Kufa, BSc (Hons) Electrical Engineering (Resident Engineer)

Evias has in excess of 15 years engineering and maintenance related experience, a significant portion of which was gained while working at the refinery and mines owned by Bindura Nickel Corporation (i.e. a member of the Anglo American Group of Companies). Prior to joining the Group in January 2008, Evias worked for Standard Flour Mills Ltd (Nigeria), where he was the Engineering Manager responsible for maintenance and the management of all capital projects.

Shaun Botes, NTC3 (Plant Manager)

Shaun has extensive hands-on experience in metallurgy and working within a mineral processing environment. Shaun has worked for East Rand Gold & Uranium from 1985 to 1997 and the Ancuabe Graphite Mine SARL (Mozambique) from 1997 to 2000. Thereafter, Shaun has working for various mining companies on a contract basis, prior to joining the Group in November 2007.

Company Address

Dumaresq House, Dumaresq Street,
St Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands, United Kingdom JE2 3RL


Telephone:	+44 (0) 1534 814 221
Facsimile:	+44 (0) 1534 754 221
Email:	info[at]noventa.net
Website:	http://www.noventa.net

Year End

31st December

Nominated Brokers

Investec Bank (UK) Limited

Nominated Advisors