Northern Manganese Ltd : blue mud bay consent to negotiate

www.northernmanganese.com.au

Northern Manganese Limited has extensive offshore manganese exploration projects in the Northern Territory.

Registered Office Address

Level 2, Spectrum

100 Railway Road

Subiaco WA 6008

Tel: [phone]

Fax: [phone]

Business Address

Suite 9, Level 1

25 Parap Road

Parap NT 0820

Tel: [phone]

Fax: [phone]

Email: [e-mail]

Directors & Management

Mr Doug Daws, OAM

Chairman

Mr Lloyd Jones

Managing Director

Mr David Ryan

Non-Executive Director

Mr Robert Marusco

Company Secretary

ASX Code: NTM

Website: www.northernmanganese.com.au

ABN 24 119 494 772

Projects

Groote Eylandt West

Manganese

Groote Eylandt Offshore

Manganese

Blue Mud Bay

Manganese

Wounded Knee

Copper, Gold

CONSENT TO NEGOTIATE ISSUED FOR BLUE MUD BAY TENEMENTS
Northern Manganese Ltd ("NTM" or the "Company") advises all shareholders
that the Department of Mines and Energy Northern Territory (DME) advised NTM on Friday 19th July 2013, that the Minister for Mines has given his consent for NTM to enter into negotiations with the Northern Land Council (NLC) in respect of the Company's four Island based Exploration Licences
28089, 28090, 28091 and 28092 located in the Blue Mud Bay ("BMB") area.
Shareholders are aware that this consent has been delayed for a considerable time due to the confusion created by the Moratorium imposed in March 2012 on coastal waters based exploration by the former NT Government. This breakthrough in the Consent process comes about as a direct result of discussions recently held in Darwin with the Chief Minister, Adam Giles and
his Deputy Dave Tollner. We are grateful for their support in resolving what had become a contentious issue.
Your Board and Management are both pleased, and excited, to finally be able to work with the NLC and re engage with the community of BMB after the moratorium put all such matters on hold. This consent is but the beginning of a formal process but we are looking forward to working together to achieve an exploration agreement over the four Island tenements.
Whilst we are pleased to advise of receipt of the 'consent' we need also to advise shareholders that this is a statutory process governed by the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (Cth) and as such has stipulated timelines that allow for negotiations between the parties being the NLC as the statutory representative for BMB and the community of BMB through the holding of community meetings. It may take some time to conduct these negotiations but, at last, this process can commence.
However, the BMB community has previously approached NTM and did enter into a Co-Operation Agreement with NTM but that expired over time. We have no reason to believe that the community of BMB would not welcome
the issuing of the consent based on previous engagements and their stated
desire to see meaningful development occur in their community. NTM will keep the market informed as negotiations continue.

Lloyd Jones
Managing Director

22 July 2013
Nort2c0rasx097 www.northernmanganese.com.au