Founder's Message

15 June 2007

Dear Mano Shareholders,

I am seizing this opportunity of mailing our usual proxy material and financials for our annual Shareholder Meeting, to wish you well and thank you for being Mano Shareholders.

I firmly believe that Mano has now reached a few interesting milestones. It has taken some ten years, or more, depending from when you measure; in 1995 our subsidiary Golden Limbo Rock Resources named almost fatally after the local Limbo River, just another fledgling gold exploration company, might well have ended up in limbo like many other junior explorers in the years following, had it not been for our aggressive obstinacy to succeed in our mission.

Our goal was to make discoveries in the Man Craton of the three 'Mano River Union' countries, of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Our current mission is to develop those discoveries into mines.

In 1989, having previously co-founded The Addax & Oryx Group Ltd., in 1987, I had co-founded its subsidiary Samax, an Archaean-geology success story in Tanzania. Mano was meant to follow that path. Clearly, we went into post-conflict situations, and as one should have expected for transition decades to a new world order, the conflicts took longer to be sorted out.

Undoubtedly, through the mix of collateral damage from that former cold war, and poor governance in the 1980s, Liberia and Sierra Leone collapsed into civil conflict. Worse, 1997 undermined our business model as gold went into a brief though dramatic existential crisis as BreX made us explorers all look suspicious, while Asia, then Russia inaugurated the latest emerging markets crisis. Since then the same countries have emerged with a vengeance. As we need trust and speculative money, for the next few years we were utterly defeated by the ensuing dotcom boom.

Only after mid 2004 could we really work peacefully in all three countries for the first time, and raise enough funds to afford doing so. The geology of the Craton is attractive, Mano was one of the first to scratch that surface and drill for gold and diamonds.

Discoveries we have made; in Liberia, with New Liberty we hope to open the very first gold mine in Liberia's history; with our partners Trans Hex Group we hope to see the Mano-discovered cluster of diamondiferous kimberlitic pipes turn into a profitable diamond mine, another first for Liberia, and, post-UN diamond sanctions, a very welcome sea change.

We are rediscovering the Putu Range iron ore potential; as steel cycles go, that prospect was summarily explored in the late 1950s early 1960s; Mano believes Putu Range represents seriously attractive export volume.

In Sierra Leone, with our partners Petra Diamonds, we rediscovered the massive dyke system that underlies the famed Kono alluvial miners' district. If one would have access to all past statistics to model all those magnificent stones (such as the 'Star of Sierra Leone') that derived from the dykes, freed through erosion and displaced by rivers, then most likely the remaining dykes would continue to deliver many more of them in the years ahead.

Mano has a pipeline of more potential discoveries.

On the ground, we have always worked closely with our communities, well in advance of the development stage. After Weaju in 2006, we are now building our second school project in Weasua, and are putting together an ambitious New Liberty Sustained Community Development project, meant to accompany the expected long life of an Archaean gold mine. There is money in this world to sponsor a well-designed and responsibly managed community plan. Liberia can count on talented nationals to tackle this challenge, and great support, especially in the US.

To complement the sometimes scarce funding, we attracted partners, though often for their expertise as well. We behaved market-opportunistically, moving from gold to add diamonds when gold fell below $280 and then adding iron ore, because we had been the single (most important) exploration company during Liberia's more difficult years, and seized the dividend of such unlikely commitment.

Admittedly the combined cyclical depression and country challenges resulted in excessive share dilution; we now have 300 million shares on issue, and propose to reduce that number. Mano's newly achieved status should support that proposal. It should assist our notoriously stagnating share price, especially as development converts into production.

Better not look back, the countries and politics have dramatically changed; Sierra Leone is preparing for the next democratic elections; Liberia's government under President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, is now considered a very attractive investment destination.

While it is quite fine for large market caps to be metal-diversified, it became increasingly difficult for Mano to fully present its three divisions in any form of presentation. Allowing distinct subsidiaries to assume an independent life, and especially, allowing the market to price each of gold, diamonds and iron ore, on its own merits, should significantly boost Mano's value.

The resulting Mano might look more like a holding company; over the next 12 months we will either come forward with a new management delivering a new Mano trading at a significant premium, or determine the most efficient methods to return each subsidiary's shares to you Mano shareholders. Meanwhile, feel free to email to mano@manoriver.com if you have any appetite to buy shares whenever a Mano subsidiary plans an IPO.

With many of you, we have been able to count on your loyalty without being able to generate a reasonable return commensurate with that support.

We have now reached a development stage at many of our prospects as further described by our President & CEO.

The current cycle proves to be unique in a lifetime, by all comparisons, a fast-track development race, involving hundreds of millions of people and more, testing the limits of a chronically underinvested industry, and creating great inflation at the production level.

Iron ore is a typical example, and we believe our Putu Range will see output in high demand for many years to come.

Gold turned the corner to re-establish itself as a long term investment diversification, while supply can't just seem to catch up, as production costs escalate.

As to diamonds, always hard to discover, new mines have now become very rare indeed, adding limited new supply. Stellar has a decent long life portfolio and should be doing great.

Last but not least, my personal interests are totally lined up with those of you Mano Shareholders; not only do I personally own some 8.65% of the issued shares, but I have over the 9 years since Mano's reverse take-over of the dual-listed shell, persuaded many private investors and some funds, to buy, and/or hold on to their, Mano shares despite poor share performance.

This is the very first time that Mano will hold its Annual Meeting in London and not in Vancouver. We welcome you to join us there on 12th July 2007.

Guido ('Guy') E.M. Pas
Founder & Chairman