Conico Ltd. announced that metallurgical testing of leaching rates at the ALS laboratories in Perth is nearing completion and is expected to conclude in the coming weeks. These tests continue to build on previous work confirming sulphur dioxide as the preferred reagent as well as temperature and residence time to maximise recoveries against costs. These results will then feed into the flowsheet design phase of the Scoping Study. The Joint Venture is now in the process of engaging a leading independent engineering consultancy to perform this section of the Scoping Study. Mt Thirsty is one of Australia's known stand-alone cobalt resources at 32 million tonnes with approximately 40,000 tonnes of contained cobalt. The great advantages of Mt Thirsty compared to other potential cobalt miners is the nature of the resource, being a flat lying, continuous and thick deposit starting from near surface to around 70 metres below surface. Due to intense oxidation, the resource is very soft and fine and low in silica. As the cobalt is attached to the manganese, initial test work has indicated that an agitated leach process undertaken at around 40oC and atmospheric pressure will be sufficient to extract the cobalt. The very nature of the deposit and leaching process being pursued has the potential to translate to a lower CAPEX/OPEX operation. Given Mt Thirsty's ideal positioning close to infrastructure including power and port access in Western Australia, the Joint Venture remains confident Mt Thirsty has the potential to become a major supplier to the burgeoning battery supply chain. The Mt Thirsty Cobalt Project covers an area of 12km2 and is located 20km north-northwest of Norseman, Western Australia, in a well-endowed nickel terrain. The Mt Thirsty Joint Venture is a 50:50 joint venture between the Company and ASX listed Barra Resources Ltd. Extensive metallurgical testwork in recent years has indicated that high recoveries of cobalt can be achieved via agitated, low temperature, atmospheric pressure, leaching using cheaper and more efficient sulphur dioxide (SO2) as the main leaching agent resulting in a more practical and economic leaching method by specifically targeting cobalt only. Two flowsheets, one utilising a paste thickener and the other using an ion exchange resin-in-pulp (RIP), are still under investigation. Both have low water consumption, low reagent consumption and greater than 80% cobalt and 25% nickel recoveries. Preliminary estimations justify continued work to progress to a pre-feasibility stage. Mt Thirsty Cobalt Oxide Deposit currently represents an excellent long-term, low cost, cobalt production opportunity. In addition to the Mt Thirsty Cobalt Oxide Deposit, the Project also hosts high-grade primary massive nickel sulphide mineralisation at the Mt Thirsty Nickel Sulphide (Ni-S) Prospect. Intersections of massive nickel sulphide up to 6.0 metres down-hole grading 3.5% nickel were reported by the joint venture in 2010. The company is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the information included in the previous announcement and that all of the previous assumptions and technical parameters underpinning the estimates in the announcement dated March 8, 2011 have not materially changed.