Focus Minerals Ltd (ASX: FML)

Australian-based gold and nickel company Focus Minerals Ltd (ASX: FML), through its Redemption Joint Venture (RJV) with Canadian-based Committee Bay Resources (TSX: CBR), is pleased to announce a further substantial increase in Indicated Resources at the Company’s advanced Perseverance Gold Project, located within the Tindals Mining Centre at the Coolgardie Gold Project, Western Australia.

Recently completed grade control drilling has resulted in a 28% increase in the Indicated Resource from 448,000t @ 6.4g/t for 92,100 contained ounces to 490,700t @ 7.5g/t for 118,500 ounces, as a result of the conversion of additional ounces to the Indicated category. The updated Inferred Resource is 195,800t @ 3.4g/t for 21,200 ounces, compared with 406,000t @ 2.7g/t for 35,300 contained ounces previously (released to the market on 10 October  2007).

The updated resource – which incorporates the recently released grade control results (released to the market on 12 December 2007), has further reinforced the potential of the Perseverance Project, where Focus is preparing to commence initial gold production in April after completing a positive Feasibility Study in December 2007. This represents the first step towards achieving the Company’s objective of becoming a 100,000 ounce per annum producer at Coolgardie within the next three years.

The updated Perseverance Resource model (Table 1) is based on 13,974m of drilling in 49 Diamond Core and 23 Reverse Circulation (RC) drill holes. The Resource comprises five distinct zones – the quartz-sulphide east zone, quartz-sulphide west zone, footwall west zone, upper diorite zone and the lower diorite zone.

The Perseverance Resource upgrade has increased the current combined Tindals Mining Centre resource inventory to over 0.5 million ounces (Table 2), comprising an Indicated Resource of 3.5 million tonnes at 2.8g/t Au for 312,900 ounces and an Inferred Resource of 2.3 million tonnes at 3.0g/t Au for 220,100 ounces. Historically the deposits comprising this centre have produced a total of 500,000 ounces from both open pit and underground operations.

The recent grade control drilling has had a significant impact on the new geological model, confirming the presence of the footwall lode, which is now more extensive than initially thought. The understanding of the main lode has also been enhanced, with the new information highlighting the fact that the main lode is actually two lodes that merge together near the centre of the deposit.

The deposit remains open to the north and south and the Company plans to conduct further step-out drilling in order to increase the resource.

Commenting on the announcement, Focus Minerals’ Managing Director, Mr Peter Williams, said: “This is a significant upgrade to our resource base and comes at an opportune time for Focus as we gear up for our maiden gold production, which is scheduled to commence in April this year.

“Given the zones are still open at strike to the north and south, there is still plenty of potential for further upgrades and we will continue with our program of exploration drilling at Perseverance itself and to evaluate the Tindals Mining Centre as a whole,” he added.

Table 1            - Perseverance Resource

Resource reported at 0g/t lower cut-off grade

Upper cut of 52g/t used for Quartz-Sulphide East zone, Upper cut of 30g/t used for Quartz-Sulphide West zone, Upper cut of 28g/t used for Footwall West zone, Upper cut of 10g/t used for Diorite Lower zone, and no Upper cut was applied to the Diorite Upper zone as all grades were below 10g/t

Table 2 - Tindals Mining Centre Resources

Coolgardie Project – Exclusivity Agreement

As previously announced (see ASX release 30 January 2008), Focus Minerals has entered into an Exclusivity Agreement to negotiate the terms of the proposed sale of Committee Bay’s 50% interest in the Redemption Joint Venture Project.

A key element of the Exclusivity Agreement is to effectively suspend the Redemption Joint Venture between January 1^st 2008 and March 31^st 2008. During this period, Focus Minerals will assume full control over the Coolgardie Project. This will enable development for the commencement of mining at Perseverance to continue, unaffected by the negotiations that will occur with Committee Bay to purchase the remaining 50% of the project. If subsequent commercial terms for the purchase of Committee Bay’s 50% of the RJV cannot be concluded, Committee Bay will resume its active role in the management of the RJV and will reimburse Focus Minerals for 50% of expenditures incurred on the Coolgardie Project between January 1^st 2008 and March 31^st 2008 (which is the date when the Exclusivity Agreement expires), excluding any expenditures made in January, being part of an earlier RJV cash call.

The Redemption Joint Venture has the mineral rights to more than 210 km² of under-explored greenstone tenements, located in one of the world’s most significant gold and nickel mining regions.  These tenements contain Measured Resources of 31,014 ounces gold (0.55 million tonnes at 1.77 g/t gold), Indicated Resources of 591,065 ounces gold (8.58 million tonnes at 2.14 g/t gold), and Inferred Resources of 1,024,417 ounces gold (11.31 million tonnes at 2.82 g/t gold).  The RJV also has a 100% interest in the fully permitted, 1.2mtpa, Three Mile Hill Mill processing plant.

ENDS

COMPETENT PERSON’S STATEMENT

The information in this report relating to Resources and Reserves are based on work supervised by Mr Chuck McCormick who is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM). Mr McCormick has the relevant experience as a “Competent Person” as defined in the 2004 edition of the Australasian Code for Reporting of Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves in relation to the mineralisation reported on. Mr McCormick is Exploration Manager of Focus Minerals Ltd and consents to the inclusion of the material in the form and content in which it appears.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION – FOCUS MINERALS LTD

Focus Minerals Ltd (ASX: FML) is an Australian-based exploration and development group whose focus is to become a significant gold and nickel producer in the Coolgardie-Kalgoorlie-Widgiemooltha region of Western Australia.

Focus Minerals is the largest landholder in the Coolgardie Gold Belt located in Western Australia, 560km east of Perth and 35km west of the ‘Super Pit’ in Kalgoorlie-Boulder. More than 2.6 million ounces of gold has been produced from the Coolgardie gold belt alone since 1892. Focus holds the mineral rights to more than 210sq km of tenements including Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resources exceeding 1.65 million ounces of gold as well as the 1.2mtpa Three Mile Hill processing plant.

Focus Minerals is also fast tracking development of its wholly-owned Nepean Nickel Project (current estimated resource totalling 591,300t @ 2.2% Ni) located 25km south of Coolgardie. Focus has a view of recommencing mining operations from the historic production centre in 2008.

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