Orica Mining Services

3 March, 2006

Orica Limited today announced new heads for its Mining Services businesses in Latin America and Europe.

Mr Mark Thomas has accepted the position of President of Orica Mining Services Latin America.  Mr Thomas has been President of Dyno Nobel Latin America for the past five years and was a member of the Dyno Nobel Corporate Executive Team.  During that time he also served for a period as Senior Vice President Dyno Nobel Global Marketing.

Mr Knut Reed has been appointed to the position of Managing Director of Orica Mining Services Europe.  Mr Reed was Senior Vice President Dyno Nobel Europe, Middle East and Africa for the last two years. 

Graeme Liebelt, Managing Director and CEO of Orica Limited said that he was very pleased to announce the appointment of two previous senior members of the Dyno Nobel management team to Orica.  He said that it demonstrated Orica’s commitment to make the most of the Dyno Nobel acquisition and the opportunities it provides for the Orica Mining Services business.  “We expect to find that in many cases, we will be able to leverage former Dyno Nobel people and assets to further improve Orica Mining Services business in its quality of customer service and its efficiency.”

Mr Liebelt commented that the transfer of the acquired Dyno Nobel entities continues to progress, with Venezuela, Slovakia, Switzerland, the Philippines and Thailand having now been transferred to Orica.  The transfer of other entities continues to be progressed subject to regulatory processes and approvals.  The European Commission is currently considering a review of the transaction, as are various other regulators.  Orica expects to be able to provide a further update of progress on the transaction at the time of release of its half year results.

Contacts:

- Frank Micallef, Investor Relations: (03) 9665 7844 Mob: 0409 961 569

- John Fetter, Group Manager, Corporate Affairs: (03) 9665 7870 Mob: 0412 311 371