The principal iron ore asset of Mano River Resources is the 80 per cent owned Putu Range Iron Ore Project in eastern Liberia.

Mano also holds a 3.68 per cent minority interest in Mifergui Nimba, holder of a 5 per cent interest (which is free carried for the first $100M invested) in the BHPBilliton-managed one billion tonne Nimba iron ore deposit in Guinea.

The Putu Range Project is held under a three year exclusive Mineral Exploration Agreement (MEA) licence for iron ore granted on May 18th, 2005, which covers an area of 425km2 in Grand Gedeh County, Liberia. The deposit is approximately 200km south east of the 1 billion tonne Mt. Nimba iron ore project that straddles the border with Guinea, currently being developed at a reported cost of $1bn by Mittal Steel. Elsewhere in Liberia, four other iron ore deposits are being explored by BHP Billiton.

Putu Range consists of two north east-south west trending ridges of which the more easterly, Mt. Jide, with its northerly extension Montroh Mountain, has been the focus of work to date. The region in general is characterised by gentle relief, with Mount Jide standing at an elevation of 850m. The licence area is only 100km from a potential deep-water port on the Atlantic, at Greenville. The Mt. Jide ridge comprises a high-grade magnetite/hematite mineralised zone with a strike length of approximately 12km.

The ridge was the subject of limited past work in the 1950s and 60s and historic reports from this period suggest that Mt. Jide ridge potentially contains in excess of 500 million tonnes of non-NI 43-101 compliant iron mineralisation, with grades up to 67% Fe.

Sampling and mineralogical analysis completed by Mano indicate that the predominant iron mineral is haematite and that the quality of the mineralisation is high, with low phosphorous levels and a coarse grain size to the quartz present.

Since September 2006, independent consultants McLellan and Partners have supervised a site preparation and sampling programme, in advance of a pre-feasibility study, which is planned, subject to financing, to commence in 2007 and include up to 4,000m of diamond drilling.

Grab samples from a 4km section of the 12km long ridge at Mt. Jide, and channel samples of the first 26m of a 50m long historic adit located approximately 300m below the crest line, returned highly encouraging average grades of 57.9% Fe and 54.2% Fe, respectively. Results from this programme are detailed in tables 1 and 2 below.

CURRENT PROGRAMMES

Access roads have been established and drill pad preparation is completed. Systematic sampling is on-going along an additional 2.5km long strike section of the main zone of Mt. Jide, within recently discovered trenches which appear to date from the 1950s and 1960s. Channel sampling of the remaining 30m of the historic adit will commence once rock wall stability has been secured. In parallel with these programmes, a pilot mineral processing study is being undertaken to investigate the optimal separation method for the quartz, which is the principal deleterious mineral, in order to upgrade the ore. Mineralogical studies completed by Mano to date suggest that gravity separation is the likely upgrading method.

SAMPLING RESULTS

Table 1. Results from Mt. Jide Ridge grab sampling programme

Table 2. Results from channel sampling within Mt. Jide Adit