Orapa secures third Malawi prospecting licence

1,283km2 Chizani Exclusive Prospecting Licence Granted.

Significant recent activity from foreign uranium explorers with nearby projects including Globe Uranium Limited and Paladin Energy Limited.

Project area covers untested radiometric anomalies which are interpreted to offer hydrothermal uranium exploration targets over elevated basement complex.

Exploring for uranium and other specified minerals including copper, gold, silver, niobium, rare earths, tantalum, scheelite and wolframite

Substantially expands Oropa's existing uranium portfolio, positioning the company as a significant uranium explorer.

Oropa Limited (ASX: ORP - "Oropa") is pleased to announce that it has secured a significant addition to its uranium exploration portfolio in central Africa after being granted a third Exclusive Prospecting Licence (EPL) covering a total area of 1,283 square kilometres in the Chizani area of central Malawi, located near Globe Uranium Limited's Kanyika Project, ("Globe's").

The grant of the EPL, to Oropa's 100%-owned subsidiary, Oropa Exploration PL, was announced by the Minister of Energy, Mines and Natural Resources of the Republic of Malawi, giving Oropa the right to explore for uranium and other specified minerals including copper, gold, silver, niobium, rare earths, tantalum, scheelite and wolframite within the Chizani Project Area.

The addition of Chizani to the Company's existing portfolio of 100%-owned exploration projects (Mzimba Northwest and Chitunde) increases its total ground position to over 3,600 square kilometres.

In November last year, Oropa entered into Memorandum of Understandings to acquire a 90% interest in two contiguous EPLs, Ngana and Ngana East, located just 20km north of Paladin Energy Ltd's ("Paladin's") Kayelekera Uranium deposit in northern Malawi. The Ngana EPLs represent a significant strategic addition to its uranium exploration portfolio.

The proximity of the Chizani EPL to the nearby Kanyika Project, owned by Globe, provides Oropa with a nearby uranium-niobium-tantalum deposit model to apply to exploration search parameters within the Chizani area. Globe currently has intensive resource definition drilling programs underway at Kanyika, with assay results awaited.

Collectively, Oropa's tenement portfolio in Malawi offers uranium exploration potential for a number of uranium deposit types in specific geological environments including: roll-front, unconformity and hydrothermal styles of uranium mineralisation.

EPL0223/07 - Chizani Project Area

Chizani is situated in central Malawi nearby Globe's multi-commodity Kanyika property, where RC and core drilling of uranium-niobium-tantalum-zircon mineralisation hosted by alkalic granitoid and pegmatitic zones is presently taking place ahead of resource estimation and metallurgical studies. Recently granted tenements in the district are also held by CC Mining SA.

Chizani covers 1283 square kilometres of structurally complex Malawi Basement Complex composed of metamorphic rocks of both igneous and sedimentary origin belonging to the Mozambique Orogenic Belt of Precambrian to Lower Palaeozoic age. A significant structural feature of the Chizani Project area is coverage of over 30 kilometres strike length of the Chimaliro Fault zone. This fault forms the southern boundary of the Champhira Dome and extends into neighbouring Zambia.

Physiographically, the project area may be divided into several units. The most prominent of these include the Kasungu Plain that forms an area of low relief in the western sector and to the northeast abuts the Nkhotakota Scarp Zone where relief exceeds 300 metres in a region of deep dissection. Over northern parts of the project the rugged Viphya Mountains dominate with areas of high relief.

EPLO223/07 covers highly structured metamorphic rocks forming basement represented by gneisses, granulites, schists, quartzites, and mylonites. Granitoid and biotite gneisses are common within the project area. Intrusive rock types include pegmatites and metamorphosed equivalents of mafic and ultramafic rocks. Regionally, quartz syenites, lamprophyres and calc-silicate gneisses interbanded with marble have been identified (see Fig. 1.)

The basement complex is believed to have suffered two major structural and metamorphic events ending with the emplacement of the Champhira Dome as a tectonic wedge. Major post basement complex structuring comprises uplift and rift faulting. The majority of the faulting is on north and northeast trends but subsidiary fractures occur on east northeast trends.

Known previous ground exploration over Chizani appears to have been limited to a regional geochemical stream sediment survey conducted as part of a development programme for Malawi conducted intermittently during the 1960s and early 1970s.

Published information reports a zinc geochemical anomaly associated with the granitoid over the northern sector of the project area, together with anomalous copper, nickel and chromium values over the Champira Dome area - a portion of which falls within Chizani north of the Chimalira Fault. Unfortunately, the historical geochemical surveys excluded analysis for gold and uranium.

Further information on the general prospectivity of Chizani is available from the UNDP-sponsored airborne radiometric survey of the area in 1984/85. A significant number of radiometric anomalies are evident within the property from this work which warrant further investigation and ranking for ground follow-up (see Fig. 2.).

The proximity of Chizani to the nearby Kanyika Project provides Oropa with a nearby uranium-niobium-tantalum deposit model to apply to exploration search parameters within the Chizani area.

Proposed Exploration

Oropa plans to systematically explore Chizani for uranium and other minerals, commencing with a reassessment of the identified radiometric anomalies which will be ranked in order of priority for their prospectivity for uranium occurrences and subsequent ground spectrometer surveys.

This work will be augmented by geological interpretations of the search areas using satellite imagery. Priority targets will then be assessed using a combination of soil, rock and stream sediment surveys in order to outline areas for more intensive exploration. These geochemical studies will be augmented by geological mapping and ground geophysical surveys.

Over areas warranting detailed assessment, systematic trenching of anomalous areas will be undertaken followed by reconnaissance drilling to establish the tenor of mineralisation present both along strike and at depth. It is envisaged that highest priority areas of mineralisation with demonstrated economic potential will be tested first by reconnaissance and in-fill drilling in order to provide sufficient information for a preliminary assessment of resource potential present prior to making a more detailed assessment.

Currently, Oropa is reviewing existing data and plans to acquire satellite imagery covering areas of interest with a view to establishing a GIS database as part of the preparation for ground investigations.

Oropa has established a base in Lilongwe and field operations are planned to recommence after the end of the wet season, which normally ends in late March.

Uranium Exploration in Malawi

Uranium exploration in Malawi presently reflects the high level of interest in the development of the Kayelekera Uranium Project in the north of the country by Paladin. The Kayelekera Uranium Project, where roll-front style mineralisation is hosted by Karroo sandstone and mudstone sediments, is scheduled to be commissioned in late 2008 with a planned annual production of 3.3 Mlbs of U3O8 over a mine life of 7 years based on reported Proven and Probable Ore Reserves of 10.46 Mt at 0.108% U3O8.

Uranium in Malawi is however not limited to Karroo-hosted deposits.

Globe is currently exploring multi-commodity uranium-niobium-tantalum mineralisation associated with 5 northerly trending stacked mineralised zones within an alkalic granitoid at the Kanyika Project in central Malawi. Results from recent drilling programmes indicate that the known mineralisation at Kanyika extends over a strike length of up to 3.4 kilometres with known depth extensions from surface of up to 150 metres. Globe has announced that a JORC compliant resource estimate for a portion of the Kanyika Project is currently being undertaken which is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2008.

Some of the better reported RC drilling intercepts from three of the five mineralised zones at the Kanyika deposit include: 42m @ 79ppm U3O8, 2,922ppm Nb2O5 and 115ppm Ta2O5 from surface, 71m @ 63ppm U3O8, 2,673ppm Nb2O5 and 125ppm Ta2O5 from 46m and 27m @106ppm U3O8, 2,829ppm Nb2O5 and 166ppm Ta2O5 from 51m.

Other known uranium mineralisation in Malawi is based on historical records and includes uranium and niobium mineralisation hosted by nepheline syenite complex intrusions. In the far northwest of the country at the Ilomba Hill locality, surface trenching in the 1950s investigated a radioactive zone where rock samples returned analyses up to 2.15% U3O8 and 7.50% Nb2O5 associated with uranian pyrochlore.

The starting point for area selection for uranium properties in Malawi is the country-wide radiometric surveys conducted in 1984/85 by Hunting Geology and Geophysics Limited based at the time in the United Kingdom. The uranium anomalies and geological settings identified by those surveys are the basis for Oropa's selection of the Chizani area.

Yours faithfully,

OROPA LIMITED

Philip C Christie

Director

Note 1: The contents of this report that relate to geology and historical exploration results are based on information compiled by consulting geologist John Garlick Mackay & Schnellmann Pty Ltd, who is a Chartered Professional Geologist and fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr Garlick has sufficient experience relevant to the style of mineralisation and types of deposits under consideration and to the activity being undertaken to qualify as a "Competent Person" as defined in the 2004 edition of the Australian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Resources. John Garlick consents to the inclusion in this report of the matters compiled by him in the form and context in which they appear.