IONIC RARE EARTHS LIMITED — Capital/Financing Update 2017

Feb 12, 2017

13 February 2017

ASX Announcement

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DRILL CONTRACTOR APPOINTED AND ALL PERMITS APPROVED FOR TOPACIO DRILLING

- COMMENCEMENT OF DRILLING IMMINENT

HIGHLIGHTS

• Drilling contractor appointed for Topacio Gold Project drilling program

• All permits now received for drilling to proceed

• Drill rig to be mobilised to site

• Newcrest to fund the initial 1,650 metre program of seven diamond drill holes

• Newcrest and Oro Verde aiming for new discovery of a buried epithermal gold system focused on the Rebeca Vein

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Oro Verde Limited (ASX: OVL) (“Oro Verde” or “the Company”) is pleased to announce that the drill contractor has now been confirmed to undertake the Topacio Gold Project diamond drilling program, located in southeastern Nicaragua (Figure 1).

Critically, all permits have now been received clearing the way for commencement of the first drill hole.

Site preparations are underway and the diamond drill rig is expected to be mobilised to site next week with drilling to commence shortly after.

The first phase of drilling will focus on a number of key locations along the Rebeca vein, which has an interpreted strike length of at least 3 kilometres. The initial program will incorporate approximately 1,650 metres of diamond core drilling within seven drill holes.

The drilling is part of the second year of the Farm-In Agreement between Newcrest International Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Newcrest Mining Limited (ASX: NCM) (“Newcrest”), and Oro Verde that was executed at the end of November 2015[1] .

Oro Verde’s Managing Director, Mr. Trevor Woolfe, commented “The rapid approval of our water permit submission has cleared the way for drilling of the Rebeca Vein at Topacio to commence. We have also now confirmed our drill contractor with the rig expected to be mobilised to site next week. With all boxes now ticked, drilling will commence shortly after rig mobilisation.”

1 Refer to ASX announcement dated 30 November 2015 “Newcrest Signs A$11M Farm-in Agreement with Oro Verde”

Oro Verde Limited (ASX code: OVL)

Level 1, 34 Colin St, West Perth, WA 6005 Phone: +61 8 9481 2555 Fax: +61 8 9485 1290 Email: info@oroverde.com.au

REBECA DRILLING PROGRAM

While Oro Verde already holds a current environmental permit allowing drilling on the Topacio concession, once final drill program design was completed, Oro Verde was required to obtain a program specific surface water usage permit from the National Water Authority (Autoridad Nacional de Agua). The water usage permit has now been approved clearing the way for the program to commence.

After a competitive tender process, Kluane Drilling (from Guatemala) has been confirmed as the preferred drill contractor to undertake diamond drilling of the Rebeca Vein at Topacio. Kluane has a number of years of experience drilling in Nicaragua and has rigs working on other major local projects including the La Libertad gold mine (B2Gold Corp.), the Bonanza gold mine (HEMCO/Mineros) and on Calibre Mining’s exploration joint ventures near Bonanza. The drill rig is expected to be mobilised to site next week with drilling to commence shortly after.

For details of the drill program, please refer to ASX announcement dated 19 January 2017[2] .

TOPACIO PROJECT BACKGROUND

Oro Verde holds an Option to Purchase Agreement over the high grade Topacio Gold Project, located in southeastern Nicaragua (Figure 1). Details can be found in the announcement to the ASX dated 27 February 2015[3] . The project contains a historical NI 43-101 (Canadian standard, similar to JORC) compliant Inferred Resource of:

2,716,176 tonnes at 3.9 g/t gold, containing 340,345 ounces of gold, at a 1.5 g/t gold cut-off

National Instrument 43-101 (“NI 43-101”) is a national instrument for the Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects within Canada and as such this estimate is a foreign estimate and is not reported in accordance with the JORC code (Australia). A competent person has not done sufficient work to classify the foreign estimate as mineral resources in accordance with the JORC code and it is uncertain that following evaluation and/or further exploration work that the foreign estimate will be able to be reported as mineral resources in accordance with the JORC code.

For enquiries contact:

Mr Trevor Woolfe Managing Director +61 411 127 837

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Mr Brett Dickson Company Secretary +61 8 9481 2555

2 Refer to ASX announcement dated 19 January 2017 “Initial 1,650m Drilling Program Planned at Topacio”

3 Refer to ASX announcement dated 27 February 2015 “Oro Verde Proceeds to Acquire Topacio Gold Project”

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Figure 1 Major Nicaraguan gold deposits and the Topacio Gold Project

About Oro Verde Limited: Oro Verde Ltd is a mineral exploration company focused on identifying and developing significant gold projects in Central America, particularly Nicaragua. Oro Verde holds an Option to Purchase Agreement to acquire 100% of the Topacio Gold Project in Nicaragua that contains a NI43-101 compliant Inferred Mineral Resource of 340,000 ounces of gold. A US$7.9 million 5 year farm-in agreement was signed on November 25, 2015 with a subsidiary of global gold major - Newcrest Mining Limited (ASX: NCM) – to jointly explore for multi-million ounce gold deposits at Topacio. Oro Verde also holds 100% of the early stage San Isidro Gold Project, also in Nicaragua, located adjacent to the 2.3 million ounce La India gold project.

COMPETENT PERSON STATEMENTS

The information in this document that relates to Exploration Results is based on information compiled by Mr Trevor Woolfe BSc Hons (Geol), who is a Member of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists. Mr Woolfe is the Managing Director and a shareholder of the Company, and is employed through consultancy Shordean Pty Ltd. Mr Woolfe has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the ‘Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves’. Mr Woolfe consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.

The information in this document that relates to Historical Mineral Resources is extracted from the report entitled “Acquisition of High Grade Gold Project” created on 11 November 2014 and available to view on www.asx.com. The Company confirms that it is not in possession of any new information or data that materially impacts on the reliability of the estimates in the original market announcement and that all material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning the estimates in the relevant market announcement continue to apply and have not materially changed. The Company confirms that the form and context in which the Competent Person’s findings are presented have not been materially modified from the original market announcement.

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