Interview Transcript

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In December 2009 Robust Resources Limited (ASX code: ROL) completed a 5,000 metre exploration drilling program within the Lakuwahi Caldera on Romang Island, Indonesia. What work has been completed so far? How do these results compare with previous drilling campaigns? How representative are they of the broader mineralised potential of the project area?

MD Gary Lewis

Our drilling program is ongoing and has now exceeded 6,000 metres of diamond coring. The results have not only lived up to, but also surpassed our high expectations, which were based on the promising scout drilling results of Billiton back in the late 1990s. Robust obtained all of the Billiton exploration data, remodelled it using advanced modern methods and realised the impressive scale of the Lakuwahi Project and indeed the Solat Project in the north of the Island.

Robust’s drilling has exceeded the Billiton results in both dimensions and grade. For example, towards the end of 2009 we announced the results of hole LWD 51 which intersected a world-class zone of gold and silver grading 6.78 g/t gold equivalent over 57.5 metres. This mineralised zone starts at surface demonstrating excellent potential for an eventual mining operation. To date the Company has reported nine 40 metre plus intersections of potentially economic grade gold in the Lakuwahi Caldera alone.

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What has happened since the end of the most recent program?

MD Gary Lewis

We are continuing to aggressively drill our targets on Romang Island. We currently have three Robust-owned and operated diamond drills operating on site and a 4th rig has been built and is on its way to the island as we speak. There has been a concerted effort in collecting basic geological data and our experienced site geologists have been able to refine and improve on the quality of the previous Billiton mapping.

This work has led to a new understanding of the geology of Romang and the style of mineralisation; which is very important for our future exploration planning. Our investigations have shown there is now strong evidence that the shallow water limestone that caps much of the Lakuwahi area is contemporaneous with the mineralisation and it plays an important role, both becoming mineralised itself and enhancing the mineralisation of the underlying trachyandesitic brecciated volcanic rocks.

The Company is also advancing a major 3D Induced Polarisation (IP) and resistivity survey, including nearly 200 kilometres of grid lines. This work is presently ongoing. The geophysical contractor is currently mobilising its equipment to site and fieldwork is expected to commence in the second week of March 2010. Ground magnetometer surveys are also underway, utilising the grid lines prepared for the IP. This work will improve interpretation of the heli-mag data already available and initial results demonstrate the emergence of fine structural information, which will be extremely useful in our geological interpretations and drill hole targeting.

In addition, the collection of basic geological data in the northern part of Romang has commenced around the Dedern Bay target. Here mapping, gridding and sampling will take place followed by IP/Resistivity surveys. Initial results and interpretation of the Billiton magnetic and radiometric data indicate a large, altered porphyry gold/copper system. The north of Romang is proving to be just as exciting as the south and there is a significant amount of highly potential exploration to be undertaken there.

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Has any progress been made toward delivery of a maiden resource estimate at Batu Hitam? What about at Batu Mas? Can you accelerate your resource definition program? How many rigs will be working on site this year?

MD Gary Lewis

Our current strategy is to have four diamond drills working continuously at Lakuwahi this year. We are planning to establish vehicle access to the exploration areas in the September quarter, after the completion of community consultations, which will allow the introduction of larger drills to accelerate resource drilling and the collection of samples for metallurgical work.

The drilling that Robust has completed to date is systematic and all counts towards a resource estimate but because the mineralised zones are open in all directions including at depth, we feel that it would be premature to announce an estimate that would greatly understate what we believe is really there.

We have engaged Golder Associates to work with us to audit all our data and internal and external procedures to ensure that when we decide it is the right time to undertake a mineral resource estimate, there will be no delay.

Whilst we are working as quickly as possible towards the definition of a resource estimate, the large scale of the system dictates that there is still a lot of scope for extensive drilling results before we are even close to ascertaining the boundaries of the what we have discovered.

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Are you happy with the grade reconciliation between your preliminary and final assay results? How are you using the most recent results to prioritise your exploration focus?

MD Gary Lewis

Yes we are. With the exception of hole LWD 051, we always announce final results to the market. The gold results from hole LWD 051 however, were so extraordinary that we made an exception in that case and released the information to the market before receiving the complete silver and base metal analyses. And I would like to point out that in that case, the gold results we released were identical to those in the final report. Our laboratory does not report results to us until they have completed all their internal Quality Assurance/Quality Control.

The recent exceptional results from Batu Mas have indeed refocused our exploration targets and we have moved a drill from the Batu Jagung prospect, which is more a base metal play, and put it to work at Batu Mas. The Company’s 4th drill rig will be sent to Batu Mas once its delivered later this month. One rig will continue at the Batu Hitam prospect, where recent geological mapping has identified excellent potential to the east.

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The recently reported high-grade intersections from Batu Mas were mostly near surface. What plans are there to test the depth extents of the mineralised area? Will this form part of the current drilling program?

MD Gary Lewis

Since the completion of hole LWD 051 we have drilled two deeper holes, one to 240 metres and another to 200 metres. We are currently awaiting assay results but the geology indicates that the mineralising system is still strong at these depths. We have budgeted for the purchase of a BQ drill rod string, which should allow us to reach depths of 500 metres with our current equipment. Moving forward, drilling deeper than 500 metres will be possible when we bring in larger rigs later in the year.

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In some instances there have been elevated base metals (Cu+Pb+Zn) signatures in your assay results from Batu Mas. How would you manage treatment of this polymetallic potential ore as part of any future processing flowsheet? Does this mean there is potential for a production credit against future costs? What about the sulphidation characteristics of the deposit?

MD Gary Lewis

The potential suite of base metals at Romang is extremely important and represents a huge revenue opportunity for us over and above the main gold-silver deposit. For example hole LWD 055 (the most recent hole for which we have assays) intersected 83 metres of 2.7% combined Pb+Zn+Cu and was still in mineralisation at that grade when it had to be stopped due to caving. This zone included 28 metres at 5.3% combined Pb+Zn+Cu. In a large, low cost open pit mine, these grades in our opinion are certainly in play.

For the most part, the base metals lie underneath the gold and silver, although in some areas there is an overlap. This means that potentially two processing streams could be developed from the one open cut mine; gold-silver through standard CIP/CIL technology and a flotation plant for the base metals.

Metallurgical tests on drill core samples from Batu Mas and Batu Hitam have indicated that the gold and silver can be processed with standard technology, with the extraction rate for gold and silver averaging between 94 % and 95%.

We are genuinely enthusiastic about the potential of the base metals at Batu Mas. The grain size is predominantly coarse which bodes well for low energy liberation (milling) and flotation and initial tests, including liberation mineralogy and flotation, are scheduled to commence in April 2010. This will lead to more extensive tests to determine potential flowsheets.

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With Robust investigating an epithermal gold-hosted prospect located within a caldera on a remote island, comparisons with the Ladolam Deposit on Lihir Island are inevitable. Is this a fair and reasonable comparison? Are there any similarities? What are the key differences? Would a future Romang operation have some of the same logistical and geological challenges that were experienced at Lihir?

MD Gary Lewis

There are certainly some similarities between Lihir and Romang. Both are located on volcanic islands of approximately the same size. The mineralising system at Lihir is large and evidence suggests that the Romang system could possibly be even larger. Fundamentally, the Lihir mineralisation is refractory and requires an expensive preliminary processing step (pressure oxidation) before it can be processed. By contrast, metallurgical studies on the Romang gold-silver mineralisation have revealed it is free milling with strong recoveries from only standard technology. This means that lower grades can potentially be mined on Romang than is currently possible on Lihir.

However there are some considerable differences between Lihir and Romang. Lihir does not have the base metal potential that is being demonstrated at Romang. Also, Romang should be a much simpler mining operation with none of the difficulties and danger experienced by Lihir in mining in an active geothermal zone. Also, quite importantly, on Lihir, it appears that there is only one centre of mineralisation, albeit a very large one, whilst on Romang, in addition to the Lakuwahi Caldera, we also have the northern part of the island which has demonstrated great potential for discovery.

Being on a remote island has many positive aspects. One of these is the ability to control inmigration during the development and mining phases. Compare the relatively benign social issues experienced by Lihir with say, Porgera or Freeport. Many lessons have been learned from Lihir and as such, Robust has partnered with the Queensland University-based Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining (who has extensive experience from Lihir and other mines). CSRM is assisting in building our community development team and programs to ensure that as the project develops, the local community and other stakeholders all benefit in parallel and ensure that we adhere to international standards and achieve world’s best practice.

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You recently appointed Dr David King as Non-Executive Chairman and Andrew Wilson as Non-Executive Director to the Board of Robust. Why were these important appointments for Robust? What are their backgrounds and what skills do they bring to the company and the development of Romang in particular?

MD Gary Lewis

This year sees Robust moving into new territory in terms of developing our potentially world class assets. With this in mind, we were keen to further strengthen our Board so that it could unlock significant new value to our shareholders in this next growth period.

David King has substantial mining related experience having served on the boards of a number of ASX-listed mining companies. His appointment to the Board brings a wealth of technical and corporate experience, which will undoubtedly prove vital as we move forward.

Andrew Wilson, a lawyer who was formerly BHP-Billiton Indonesian President Director and a Director of the Indonesian Mining Association, has significant regional on-ground experience as well as the ability to speak fluent Indonesian. This level of experience will prove invaluable to Robust as we progress, with Andrew assisting project risk mitigation, government relations and adherence to sound corporate governance amongst other things.

With these appointments, we now believe that we have firmly in place a significantly strengthened board that will be able to lead the Romang Island Project into the next developmental stage and beyond.

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What are the key milestones for the Company this calendar year? Beyond exploration success and resource conversion at Lakuwahi, were do you see the value creation opportunities for existing and potential shareholders?

MD Gary Lewis

The Company’s key milestones remain largely technical in nature. Following the completion of a capital raising late in 2009, the company has sufficient funding to see it through the current exploration program, which includes:

- 3D IP survey to delineate deeper targets and get a view under the limestone which covers most of the Lakuwahi Caldera;

- concentration of drilling in main prospect area of Batu Mas where three diamond drill rigs will be tasked with resource delineation plus exploratory drilling to further expand the boundaries of this exciting prospect;

- acceleration of exploration in the Solat Caldera in the north of Romang Island, including the commencement of drilling towards the end of 2010; and

- completion of the preparatory work required for a maiden JORC resource estimate.

We drilled around 50 holes last financial year for nearly 5,000 metres; we’ll do over 6,000 metres this year.

Having put a world-class Project together with the capital, the people and the infrastructure support, value creation will be all about exploration success and resource creation.

And with the prospectivity of the Romang Island Project, that is all we and our shareholders could hope for.

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Thank you Gary.