Monday 6 July 2009

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The Australian company is advancing the 44.5 million tonne Abu Dabbab tin and tantalum project in Egypt which promises to

be the world's next major source of tantalum, with the operation set to benefit from sales of by-product industrial mineral

feldspar. Gippsland owns 50% of the joint venture with Egyptian government which operates the project.

"Gippsland Limited has reached the stage where it has become logical to split my dual role of Executive Chairman and Chief

Executive Officer in order to spread the considerable workload involved in the development of the company's world scale Abu

Dabbab tantalum-tin-feldspar project," CEO Jack Telford said in an e-mailed note. "Ian will undoubtedly be a great

contributor to the development of Abu Dabbab and the Company in general as his involvement will provide the Gippsland

Board with increased commercial strength.

In a statement Mr Gandel thanked Mr Telford for his considerable efforts in bringing the project to its present advanced stage

of development. "Our company Gippsland, has a world scale tantalum resource in Egypt and capable management teams in

Australia and in Egypt with a focus on bringing the project to market," he commented, adding: "The global financial crisis

has impacted consumer markets, and this has in turn put pressure on the price of commodities. How long this will continue

no-one knows, but in the case of the metal tantalum I see opportunity as users deplete existing stockpiles and several

existing non-conflict competitor operations have closed."

Abu Dabbab project has the capacity to produce 650,000 pounds of tantalum pentoxide and 1,530 tonnes of LME grade tin

metal per year, over a likely mine life of 20 years, as well as generating 1.5 million tpy of premium grade feldspar from

tailings, giving it an additional revenue stream.

of raw material following the