Newcrest Mining Limited (NCM) Share Price

NCM Company Profile

Newcrest is Australia’s largest gold producer and one of the world’s top 10 gold mining companies by production, reserves and market capitalisation.

Newcrest has a portfolio of low cost, long life operating mines, a strong pipeline of growth projects and highly prospective brown and greenfield exploration projects. The company has a substantial reserve and resource base combined with a long reserve life. As at 30 June 2007, it had gold reserves of 33.2Moz and copper reserves of 2.70Mt and gold resources of 55.2Moz and copper resources of 5.65Mt.

Newcrest has substantial leverage to the gold price. The Company will be an unhedged gold producer when the hedgebook buy-back is completed by September 2008. At 15 February 2008, Newcrest had 622,302 ounces of gold hedged representing less than 2% of gold reserves. Low gearing and a strong balance sheet places the company in a good position to fund major development projects and to capitalise on external growth opportunities.

The company's current activities include six operating mines: Cadia Valley Operations, comprising Cadia Hill and Ridgeway (near Orange, NSW), Telfer Open Pit and Telfer Underground (Pilbara Region, Western Australia), Cracow (Gladstone Region Central Queensland) and Kencana K1 (Indonesia). The four development projects are located at existing mine sites (Cadia East Open Pit, Cadia East Underground, Ridgeway Deeps and Kencana K2).

In addition, Newcrest is currently exploring for gold and gold-copper deposits in Australia, Indonesia, Fiji, the United States, Peru and Chile. The world class exploration team has an enviable track record of discovery as all Newcrest’s mining projects were discovered by the company. Metals Economic Group ranked Newcrest as the most successful company at discovering major gold deposits between 1992 – 2005.

Performance in brief 2007/2008

Record gold production of 1,781,182 ounces

Copper production was 87,458 tonnes

Group cash costs declined 7% to A$261 per ounce.  Newcrest's cash costs remain firmly in the lowest cost quartile within the global gold industry

Group total costs were steady at A$416 per ounce

Group Ore reserves were up 20% to 40 million ounces of gold and up 54% to 4.15 million tonnes of copper

Group Mineral Resources were up 20% to 70.6 million ounces of gold and up 62% to 9.18 million tonnes of copper

Succesful A$2.0 billion Equity Offering and close-out of the 4.0 million ounce gold hedgebook

Record underlying profit up 158% to $493.9 million

Record cashlfow from operations of $1,018.1 million, up 163%

Gearing reduced to 8%

Implementation of regional growth strategy with acquisition of a 50% stake in the PNG assets of Harmony Gold Company

Final dividend doubled to 10 cents per share, unfranked

Increase in planned production profile at the Cadia East project with development of a larger underground panel cave

Market capitalisation increased over 70% to A$13.3 billion (as at 30 June 2008)

Operations Overview

Newcrest owns and operates six mines – five located in Australia and one in Indonesia. All mines are based on the conversion of exploration successes into low cost, long life mines.

The depth of the company’s operational expertise enhances its ability to efficiently operate the existing mine portfolio. Efficient and low cost bulk mining methods are used for low-grade deposits while selective mining methods are used to recover ore from the higher grade underground deposits. A number of operations benefit from the economic impact of copper-by-product credits.

A re-affirmation of the strategy of optimising performance of our assets is highlighted by our cash costs which rank in the lowest quartile among global gold producers.

Existing operations mine lives are expected to be extended by the progressive development of current projects and further exploration successes in and around existing operations. For more information www.newcrest.com.au