from the md's blog 2011 - a year of transforma

2011 - A Year of Transformation
Hi All,

Today is the first day were have had the Meridian Team together in 2011 following the Christmas ? New Year?s break. It?s good to be back at work and we are all looking forward to an exciting year. I spent two weeks in Tasmania over the Christmas holidays with my family and recharging my batteries. The last few months of 2010 were extremely hectic and it's only after you stop and take stock that you realise how much a break will be good for you. Whilst I was walking around the beautiful east coast of Tasmania I was thinking about the best ways for Meridian to achieve its ambitious goals for this year. Therefore, in my first BLOG for the year I thought I would share with you some of my thoughts about Meridian?s goals for 2011, the challenges and potential rewards.



When Meridian was set up in 2007 one of our medium term goals was to transition the company from being a pure exploration company to being a producer. Our aim is to make this transition by putting the Lennard Shelf Lead-Zinc Project back into production and 2011 will be the critical year for making this transition happen. We are on track to complete our Feasibility Study for the Mineral Resources existing at the Emanuel Range section of the Lennard Shelf Project, by the end of March. Once the Feasibility Study is completed, we will seek commitments from our major shareholders to assist with financing the development of the project with the goal of having committed financing in place by June-July 2011. With the financing in place, construction of the concentrator facility (processing plant) can then commence and pumping out of the Kapok mine would also take place following environmental approvals. These timeframes are aggressive but they need to be, as with lead and zinc prices on the rise again, subject to a positive outcome from the Feasibility Study, we need to get the project back into production as soon as possible to take advantage of further potential increases in the lead and zinc prices. To maximize the financial return from putting the Emanuel Range Mineral Resources back into production, it is imperative that we capture as much as possible of any upswing in the lead and zinc prices. Therefore, time is critical for us.

The ultimate vision for Meridian is to build a new mid-tier mining company, with the first step towards this goal being putting the Emanuel Range Mineral Resources back into production. However, to build a mid-tier company Meridian requires a pipeline of projects such that other projects can be bought into production following the Emanuel Range. Consequently, we are always seeking out and assessing new advanced projects which we can add to our portfolio. We are also advancing the assessment of some of our other projects within Australia and this particularly applies the Thomson Fold Belt Project in northern New South Wales. Over the course of the next 12 months I expect we will bring another advanced project into the portfolio and bring to a key decision point the Thomson Fold Belt Project.

This year we are going to hit the ground running with drilling scheduled to commence back at the Emanuel Range next week. Last summer we managed to drill through the northern wet season and there should be no reason why we cannot do the same this year. Our drilling at the Emanuel Range will initially focus on testing some north-west trending geological faults which we suspect are controlling the thicker high grade lead-zinc mineralisation at both the Cadjebut Splay and Kapok West Mineral Resources. If the drilling does prove that the NW faults are controlling the higher grade mineralisation, then there is space around the existing Mineral Resources to add some more valuable tonnes to the existing resources. In early December 2010 we prepared drill sites for the testing of geophysical targets on the Thomson Fold Belt Project. Unfortunately, despite preparing the drill sites, we could not undertake the drilling due to rain which occurred around Bourke in December. Our plan is to get back and test these targets on the Thomson Fold Belt project as soon as possible with the goal of starting the drilling before the end of January. Therefore, we expect to be generating some solid news flow to the market over the course of the next few months.

It is going to be an exciting and pivotal year for Meridian in 2011. I am looking forward with great expectation to the completion of the Emanuel Range Feasibility Study in March. I am also very excited by the drilling we are going to do on the Thomson Fold Belt Project as, for a Greenfields exploration play, this is one of the most prospective new geological terranes to be tested in Australia for many years. With all this activity in the first few months of 2011 and with increased promotional activities, Meridian hopes to present to the market a strong case for a significant rerating. One of the key aspects of my job is to ensure that this does in fact occur. Now let?s get to it!

Cheers

Jeremy


4 Jan 2011