OceanaGold, Climax complete merger

Perth-based engineering and development company GRD Ltd gold spinoff OceanaGold Ltd has successfully completed its merger with NSW-based Climax Mining Ltd.

The full text of a company announcement is pasted below

The Directors of OceanaGold Limited and Climax Mining Limited are pleased to announce the successful completion of their merger.

At the Climax Mining Share and Option Scheme Meetings on Monday 30 October 2006, over 99% of the votes cast by shareholders and option holders were in support of the merger. "This is an outstanding result which indicates the level of support our shareholders have in OceanaGold's growth strategy." commented Stephen Orr.

At the meeting of the Board today, the following Directors have been appointed to the new OceanaGold:

• James Askew - Chairman
• Kerry McDonald - Vice Chairman
• Denham Shale - Independent Director
• Terry Fern - Independent Director
• Antenor Silva - Independent Director
• Stephen Orr - CEO and Executive Director

Former Director, Bruce Thomas will be leaving the OceanaGold Board to pursue other opportunities. The Board thanks him for his service and contributions.

The merged entity, listed on the ASX and NZX as OceanaGold, has a market capitalisation of $480 million (based on a 73 cent share price) and forecast gold production of +550,000 AuE ounces by the end of 2008.

"The merger is consistent with OceanaGold's growth strategy and delivers a leading Pacific Rim gold mining company with a diverse portfolio of development and exploration projects in New Zealand and the Philippines", Stephen Orr said.

Key highlights of the merged entity include:

• Increased scale
• Reserve of 4.8 million ounces Au Eq
• Increased financial strength
• Greater global interest and increased liquidity
• An expected 12 per cent gearing on the balance sheet
• Increased diversification
• An established presence in New Zealand, Australia and the Philippines
• A portfolio of high quality exploration, development and production assets
• Multiple operating mines to provide greater performance consistency
• Revenue from gold, copper and silver
• Unique exploration position
• Dominant control of the mineralogically prospective Reefton and Macraes Goldfields in New Zealand
• One of the largest high quality gold-copper exploration portfolios in the Philippines

OceanaGold will be led by a strong and focussed management team with a successful track record in international project development and low cost mining, including:

• Chief Executive Officer - Stephen Orr ( former OceanaGold CEO)
• Chief Financial Officer - Brian Kinsella
• Chief Development Officer - Albert Brantley
• Vice President Corporate Exploration - Mike Roache
• Vice President New Zealand Operations - John Kinyon
• Vice President Corporate Technical Services - Mark Cadzow

"The new OceanaGold will have one of the strongest development and exploration portfolios of any mid-cap gold company and over the next three years, we will build and commission three new mines that will increase our gold production from 180 thousand ounces per annum to over 550 thousand gold equivalent ounces per annum." said Mr Orr.

"We have increased our exploration expenditures to comprehensively explore the entire Reefton and Macraes Goldfields and are confident that we will discover additional reserves."

"We have acquired one of the most comprehensive exploration portfolios in the Philippines and will devote A$6 to A$7 million per year to exploration for new gold deposits."

"To ensure that we deliver value, we will maintain the Didipio project schedule that we have already been managing under contract to the Climax Board and we have spent the period during the merger developing a detailed Philippine and New Zealand exploration plan that will start in early 2007." he said.