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16 May 2007

Australian Mines (ASX:AUZ) is pleased to announce it has finalised an agreement with Azure Minerals Limited (ASX: AZS) to purchase the nickel rights to the Bounty Project located approximately 450km east of Perth. Bounty encompasses some 43km2 of the northern portion of the Forrestania Greenstone Belt, a renowned nickel province.

Commenting on the deal, Australian Mines Chief Operating Officer Mr Brett Young said, “The Bounty Project provides Australian Mines with an opportunity to explore in one of Western Australia’s most nickel-rich regions. The Forrestania greenstone belt has seen significant recent exploration success at Flying Fox and Digger Rocks. The Bounty tenements contain some 24 strike kilometres of prospective contact including the contact hosting Cosmic Boy and Digger Rocks.”

Preliminary work conducted by Forrestania Gold NL and Azure Minerals Ltd had intersected nickel mineralisation (best results include 16m at 1.1%Ni, 3.5m 1.2%Ni, 0.5m at 4.5%Ni,) which will form the initial focus of the exploration program. Over the next 12 months the Company plans to commit a minimum of A$250,000 to drilling for nickel.

Under the terms of the agreement, Australian Mines pays Azure A$75,000 for their interest in the project. Should the company subsequently produce a bankable feasibility study based on a minimum of 15,000 tonnes of contained nickel, Australian Mines will pay Azure an additional A$1,000,000.

Upon production of a bankable feasibility study, Australian Mines will be deemed to have earned a 70% joint venture interest in the tenements with Montague Resources Australia Pty Ltd retaining a 30% interest. Australia Mines can proceed to 80% by payment of a further sum of A$800,000 for each individual tenement (5 in total).

The Company has added another highly prospective nickel project following on from the acquisition of the Harmony nickel tenements announced earlier this month.