14 November 2008 

EMED Mining Public Limited (“EMED Mining” or “the Company”) announces that it has appointed Goldman Sachs International (“Goldman Sachs”) as lead-arranger for arranging and structuring the project finance, copper price hedging and related guarantee and finance facilities (the “PRT Project Financing and Commodity Hedging”) required by its wholly-owned subsidiary in Spain EMED Tartessus S.L (“EMED Tartessus”) for the potential restart of operations at Proyecto de Rio Tinto (“PRT”).

The appointment of Goldman Sachs as lead-arranger of the PRT Project Financing and Commodity Hedging is another step forward in the preparations for restart of the PRT.  The project and PRT Project Financing and Commodity Hedging may only proceed after all regulatory requirements are satisfied and the relevant approvals from government agencies and EMED Mining shareholders are received. In the meantime EMED Mining continues to make preparations at the operating site, to progress the permitting process and to resolve the remaining negotiations with private landholders and government agencies.

Harry Anagnostaras-Adams, Managing Director of EMED Mining, commented:

“We have done a lot of work in Spain to clean up the complicated legal structure and overcome the disputational relationships we inherited. We have also been busy at site to prepare for the restart in a safe and efficient manner. These tasks have been carried out with the advice and support of leading international legal and industry specialists such as our legal advisers Baker McKenzie and international mining experts AMC Consultants.

"Local stakeholders have held historical distrust of parties associated with the project however we believe that we are beginning to demonstrate the benefit of our endeavours and to establish trust in our local relationships. The Company is certainly determined to ensure that PRT is restarted in a responsible manner. EMED Mining’s major shareholders, Directors and management are all industry specialists with extensive international mining experience and have no association with the past problems or parties at this site. The Company prides itself on its integrity, transparency and its focus on progress in accordance with relevant local and international standards.”

-Ends-

Download the announcement "Appointment of Lead-Arranger for Financing" (60KB pdf).