announcement-more to follow

Third Quarter Activities & Cashflow Reports
03-05 1602


ASHBURTON GOLD PROJECTS

PARABURDOO GOLD PROJECT (WHOLLY-OWNED BY SIPA)

MOUNT OLYMPUS GOLDMINING OPERATIONS

Sipa's Mount Olympus goldmining operations continue to perform above
expectation. March Quarter and Year To Date (YTD) production
statistics are tabled below:

TABLE 1
PRODUCTION STATISTICS

ORE MILLED RECOVERED GRADE GOLD PRODUCED CASH COSTS
(DRY TONNES) (G/T AU) (OUNCES) ($/OUNCE)
ACTUAL BUDGET ACTUAL BUDGET ACTUAL BUDGET ACTUAL BUDGET

March 155,537 144,768 3.08 3.23 15,402 15,035 290 287
Qtr
YTD 463,925 437,731 2.91 2.66 43,380 37,453 351 400

The last Quarter Result is particularly pleasing since it included a
two week milling trial of the Low Grade Stockpile resulting from
mining of the Mount Olympus orebody. The trial displaced a similar
tonnage of run-of-mine higher grade ore (about 3.5g/t), but still
produced more gold than Budget at effectively the Budget cost.

The 14 day trial of the Low Grade Stockpile saw:

* 24,670 tonnes milled

* 876 ounces of gold produced from a head grade of 1.21g/t

* Recovery of 91.4%

This trial (which replaced the drill testing of this stockpile as
flagged in the last Quarterly) indicated some 31,000 ounces of gold
remains in the 785,000 tonne Low Grade Stockpile in addition to
another 21,000 ounces of gold in the 325,000 tonne Medium Grade
Stockpile which recently returned a head grade of 1.98g/t from a
similar 14 day milling trial.

Mining ceased at the Zeus and Peake satellite pits in mid April, but
milling of that ore will continue through to June at a head grade of
about 3.5g/t.

The Medium Grade Stockpile will then be milled prior to commencement
of production from the Waugh Deposit.

The Budget for the 3 months to 30 June 2002 is:

11,000 ounces of gold from 150,000 tonnes milled at a cash cost of
$250/ounce

SIPA FORWARD SALES POSITION

Fixed Forwards: 8,995 ounces at $530.20 strike price

All gold produced from December 2001 has been sold at AUS dollars
spot price.

WAUGH GOLD DEPOSIT EVALUATION

Early in April we announced a first Resource Estimate for the Waugh
Gold Deposit located about 3 kilometres east of our Mount Olympus
Gold treatment plant.

The Resource Estimate, which totals

704,000 tonnes @ 5.91 g/t for 134,000 ounces of gold,

was compiled by independent mining Consultants, Hellman and Schofield
Pty Ltd. The Resources, which were estimated by Multiple Indicated
Kriging and which are based on all drilling to date (though the
deposit remains "open"), are shown in Table 2:

TABLE 2
ESTIMATED RESOURCES OF WAUGH GOLD DEPOSIT (@ 0.9G/T CUT-OFF GRADE)

CATEGORY MEASURED + INDICATED INFERRED
TONNES G/T OZ AU TONNES G/T OZ AU
AU AU
Waugh Sole
Risk
100% Sipa 476 000 7.14 109 000 16 000 2.76 1 500

Limerick
Hill JV * 120 000 3.60 14 000 92 000 3.06 9 000
NOL may
earn 70%

Total** 596 000 6.43 123 000 1,108 000 3.02 10 500

CATEGORY TOTAL
TONNES G/T OZ AU
AU
Waugh Sole
Risk
%100 Sipa 492 000 7.00 111 000

Limerick
Hill JV * 212 000 3.37 23 000
NOL may earn
70%
Total** 704 000 5.91 134 000

* NOL is Newcrest Operations Limited
** All tonnes and ounces have been rounded

The Estimate is based on 295 Reverse Circulation drillholes totalling
22,097 metres and five diamond core holes totalling 499 metres as
shown on Figure 4. Drilling ceased about 4 weeks ago.

Mine planning for the exploitation of Waugh is proceeding, with
earthmoving cost estimates and geotechnical advice awaited to
finalise pit optimisations and Ore Reserve calculations. Preliminary
pit optimisations indicate that only a small proportion of Resource
in the Limerick Hill Joint Venture is likely to translate to Reserve.
A Notice of Intent to Mine will be submitted upon completion of the
mine plan and it is anticipated that Waugh will be developed in the
second half of 2002.

Nearly all of Waugh, as presently defined, is within a 400 metre long
zone of "Sipa Sole-Risk Excision" from the Limerick Hill Joint
Venture, which surrounds the Paraburdoo Gold Project (Newcrest
Operations Limited, as Manager, may earn a 70% interest in Limerick
Hill). The excision extends at depth to the 400 metre RL, which is
between 75 metres and 150 metres from surface. Some of the Waugh
mineralisation extends at depth, as well as to the east, into the
Limerick Hill Joint Venture (as detailed in the Resource Estimate).

Waugh is an oxide gold deposit hosted by massive ironstones,
ironstone-veined siltstones (the ironstone is 'gossan', or oxidised
pyrite) and brecciated gossanous quartz, collectively referred to as
the Waugh 'lode'. There is little evidence of surface mineralisation
at Waugh, with only several small ironstone outcrops (which assayed
up to 10 g/t gold at surface) scattered over only about 200 metres of
strike. They are however hosted by a much more extensive zone of
bleaching and alteration traceable for some 11 kilometres around the
Diligence Dome. This 'Diligence Dome Alteration Zone', most of which
is within the Limerick Hill Joint Venture, contains twelve other
areas of ironstone outcrops and ironstone veining, a number of which
have strongly anomalous geochemistry.

There are three very important points regarding the present status of
Waugh:

1. Waugh hosts a very high-grade 'shoot' of mineralisation which
averages more than 30g/t gold, is traceable for over 100 metres
down-plunge with a horizontal width of typically 15 metres to 25
metres and a vertical thickness of 10 metres to 15 metres.

This 'shoot' is hosted by a much larger halo of lower grade
mineralisation, or 'lode'.

2. The Waugh lode is open (as shown on Figure 4):

* down-dip to the west within Sipa's sole-Risk Excision, where:
WAC 295 intersected 4 metres @ 37.3 g/t gold from 77 metres

* along strike to the east - the last two sections drilled, which
were, 60 metres and 80 metres respectively within the Limerick Hill
Joint Venture - returned the following intersections:

WAC228 intersected 4 metres @ 9.2 g/t gold from 61 metres
WAC 234 intersected 4 metres @ 9.2 g/t gold from 154 metres, and

3. There are three very important implications that result from the
Waugh discovery:

* Relatively small outcrops of ironstone may represent much larger
mineralised systems

* These systems may contain very high-grade 'shoots', which require
close-spaced drilling to discover and delineate

* There are many more outcrops similar to those at Waugh within the
Diligence Dome Alteration System

Drilling will recommence at Waugh early May.

NEW DRILLING TARGETS

Recent exploration within the two Paraburdoo Gold Project Mining
Leases have generated four drill targets as shown on Figure 3:

* at Dinosaur (3 kilometres east of Mount Olympus) there is an 800
metre long, by up to 200m wide, soil geochemical anomaly that peaks
at 750ppb gold and contains outcrops of lode similar to the Peake and
Zeus deposits (recently mined) and ironstones similar to Waugh, with
strongly anomalous gold (up to 7 g/t). Limited drilling by the
previous mine operator was ineffective.

* at the 1,000 metre long Diligence Dome South (5 kilometres east of
Mount Olympus) there are 250 metres of ironstone outcrops within the
Paraburdoo Gold Project (750metres of the outcrops lie within the
Limerick Hill Joint Venture) with anomalous geochemistry similar to
Waugh.

* at Dragonfly (5 kilometres southeast of Mount Olympus) there is a
1.5 kilometre long zone of scattered mineralised outcrops, visually
and geochemically very similar to Zeus, with surface samples assaying
up to 5 g/t gold.

* Marcus, which is located 1.5 kilometres west of Mount Olympus and
which is part of the same mineralised system, has had some relatively
wide spaced drilling in the past, but recent detailed mapping and
sampling suggests the presence of small, but potentially high grade
shoots, with surface samples assaying to 26 g/t gold.

All these prospects are earmarked for drilling.

SIPA - NEWCREST JOINT VENTURES

Newcrest Operations Limited (Newcrest) operate two Joint Ventures on
land wholly owned by Sipa (Limerick Hill, where Newcrest may earn 70%
by spending $3.5 million, and Ashburton Regional, where Newcrest may
earn 70% by spending $5 million) and five Joint Ventures on land
owned by others where Sipa, and Newcrest participate 30% and 70%
respectively in earning interests by exploration expenditure
(Rocklea, House Creek, Anthiby Well, Ausicaribian and Mt Wall). Table
3 summarises the Joint Ventures and their locations are shown on
Figures 1 and 2.

TABLE 3
SIPA-NEWCREST ASHBURTON JOINT VENTURES

JV NAME CURRENT OWNERSHIP INTEREST THAT MAY BE EARNED

Ashburton
Regional Sipa 100% Newcrest 70%
Limerick Hill Sipa 100% Newcrest 70%
Rocklea Bacome Pty Ltd 100% Sipa 22.5%, Newcrest 52.5%
Ausicaribian Newgold Hill Mines 100% Sipa 30%, Newcrest 70%
House Creek Ashburton Gold Mines NL 100% Sipa 22.5%, Newcrest 52.5%
Anthiby Well Goldfields Exploration 100% Sipa 30%, Newcrest 70%
Mt Wall Giralia NL 100% Sipa 21.6%, Newcrest 50.4%

Drilling in the Ashburton over the last three years throughout a 150
kilometre long mineralised corridor to the northwest of the
Paraburdoo Gold Project has discovered two areas of very strong and
persistent gold anomalies:

* At Cheela Plains there is a "chain" of RAB drill anomalies in the
weathered rock as deep as 100 metres. Best results to date are:

* Electric Dingo (Ashburton Regional JV) - 17 metres @ 3.5g/t Au
* Cheela West (Ashburton Regional JV) - 36 metres @ 2.2g/t Au

In addition, a significant area of outcropping mineralisation,
assaying up to 8.8 g/t Au, has been found about 10km west of
Electric Dingo in the Ashburton Regional Joint Venture and has been
named New Morning.

* At Cairn Hill in the Rocklea IV, a prospect named Ibex has returned
some high grade intersections including:

* 14 metres @ 5.5g/t Au (including 1 metre @ 500g/t Au cut to 30g/t
Au for the 5.5g/t average)

Recent fieldwork in the Limerick Hill Joint Venture has focussed on
the Diligence Dome Alteration Zone, where detailed mapping, rock chip
and soil sampling and shallow Reverse Circulation drilling has been
conducted.

Four zones of geochemically anomalous ironstones (or 'gossans') have
been defined and one (Diligence) has been drilled. The others are
named Diligence Nose North, Diligence Nose South, and Diligence Dome
South.

Drilling at Diligence intersected the lode over 420 metres of strike
with a mineralised zone about 100 metres long returning results
ranging up to 4 metres @ 20.7g/t Au and averaging 2 metres @ 7.2g/t
Au from 13 holes out of 22 which returned above 2 gram metres of
gold.

Drilling by Newcrest is due to recommence early May, with New
Morning, the Cheela Chain of Anomalies, Ibex and the Diligence Dome
being initial targets.

MORE TO FOLLOW