News

• Experienced exploration & mine geologist appointed as Exploration Manager.
• Planning well advanced for intensive 2008 exploration field season.
• Eight priority targets to be tested at flagship South Woodie Woodie Manganese Project (WA).

Australian resource company Spitfire Resources Limited (ASX Code: SPI) has commenced the year on a positive note, today announcing the appointment of experienced exploration and mine geologist, Nathan Cull, as its Exploration Manager with responsibility for overseeing the Company’s forthcoming drilling program at the 80%-owned South Woodie Woodie Project in Western Australia.

Mr Cull – who has held a number of senior positions over the past seven years with Australian manganese producer Consolidated Minerals Limited – has over 17 years experience in the exploration and mining sectors, including several years of experience in resource estimation and two years working in the former Soviet Union.

He has performed the role of Chief Mine Geologist for Consolidated Minerals, overseeing the mine geology at the Woodie Woodie manganese and Coobina chromite operations in Western Australia, where he assisted in coordinating the timely development drilling of deposits with mine schedules and was involved in the discovery and drill-out of the Double Eight Extensions manganese deposit.

Prior to joining Consolidated Minerals, Mr Cull was an Underground Geotechnical Engineer at the large Telfer Gold Mine in WA for one year, a Project Geologist/Technical Services Director at a large gold/silver mine in Armenia for two years, and spent several years working in a range of positions in the Eastern and Northeastern Goldfields of Western Australia.

Spitfire’s Managing Director, James Hamilton, said he was delighted to have attracted someone of Mr Cull’s calibre and experience as Exploration Manager, to head up the team responsible for delivering the Company’s 2008 exploration programs.

“Nathan brings a significant depth of expertise and knows the geological environment of the East Pilbara region very well – having worked at the nearby Woodie Woodie mine over the past few years,” he said.

“He has also been involved in the discovery and drill-out of some of the new-generation of manganese deposits that we have seen discovered in this region in recent years thanks to the application of sophisticated modern geophysics and exploration techniques,” he added. “His experience will be invaluable as we commence our exploration programs.”

Spitfire, which listed on the ASX in December 2007 following a successful $6 million IPO, will initially test a series of priority manganese targets identified from aerial photography, satellite data, field mapping, soil sampling and surface rock chipping, as well as 6,600 line km of airborne geophysics utilising the state-ofthe- art Versatile Time Domain Electromagnetics (VTEM) heli-borne magnetics system.

The South Woodie Woodie Project comprises three granted Exploration Licences covering an area of approximately 490km2. The principal area of initial exploration focus lies some 50km down-strike from the Woodie Woodie mine, although the Company has also commenced a comprehensive review of its broader tenement holdings to develop a pipeline of exploration targets and opportunities within this highly prospective belt.