Normandy Mining: Year 2000 Disclosure.

ADELAIDE, Australia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 30, 1999--

(TSE:NDY.) (ME:NDY.)

You may be aware of the current effort underway in many organizations to address the risks posed by the Year 2000 problem. Sometimes called the "millennium bug", the Year 2000 problem arose because many computerized systems were designed to interpret the year from the input of two digits to save disk space and processing. For example, without remediation, many computers would have read 00 as 1900 and not 2000. As a result, most organizations are working towards a remedy for this problem.

Australian Stock Exchange Limited requires all listed companies to answer specific questions relating to their progress in meeting this challenge. This is Normandy Mining Limited's response to these questions.

1. Has your company's assessment of its overall potential exposure

to the Year 2000 problem changed materially from what the market

has previously been told? If it has, your response should

describe the change.

No. There is no material change since the last report dated 31 March 1999.

2. Has your company initiated any material action to address the

Year 2000 problem beyond actions previously disclosed to the

market, or does it propose to initiate any such action? If it

has, your response should describe the action.

Yes. As part of the planned quality assurance process, independent external consultants have completed reviews of the Normandy Year 2000 Programme.

3. Please provide details of your company's progress in relation to

its activities to address the Year 2000 problem, including the

date by which your company expects to have completed those

activities.

Background

Normandy Mining Limited recognizes the significance of the potential exposure to Year 2000 problems and established its Programme Office in March 1998.

A dedicated General Manager with a core team of specialists manages the Normandy Year 2000 Programme and reports directly to the Group Managing Director. Specialists from Unisys Australia Limited continue their active role in the programme. In conjunction with the Year 2000 Programme Office, each business unit or operation is responsible for detailed management of its own compliance activities, and has had a team actively involved.

Regular formal reports continue to be submitted to Executive Management, the Year 2000 Steering Committee, the IT Board Committee and the Audit and Compliance Committee.

During the programme, Normandy's Internal Audit has been maintaining a watching brief of its Year 2000 Programme. Under this stewardship, external consultants have conducted three reviews of the Normandy Year 2000 Programme during 1999.

Overall, the reports have been positive. Any recommendations have either been addressed, or will be implemented, as we progress through the relevant programme phase. The next review is scheduled to take place in November 1999 to audit the Business Continuity Plans.

The Normandy Year 2000 Programme is a global programme encompassing all of its operations and activities, and addresses date related risks posed by:

- Process Control Systems - including technology controlled

equipment, process logic controllers, process controls and

instrumentation, and related equipment which have embedded chips.

- External Parties - including suppliers of goods and services,

customers, and joint ventures and associated companies not

directly managed by Normandy.

- IT Infrastructure and Communications - including servers, PCs,

PABXs, radios, routers.

- IT Applications - including all business critical applications on

all platforms.

- Non-IT Infrastructure - including building management, office

equipment.

Normandy has adopted the British Standards Institute's Year 2000 compliance rules as described in DISC PD2000-1 for compliance.

In total, 450 process control system and IT related compliance projects have been developed and all are now complete.

A crucial aspect of Normandy's Year 2000 Programme is identifying new items of risk and ensuring that assets, once certified, remain compliant. This entails monitoring all changes to existing or the acquisition of new systems or products to ensure that any resulting potential Year 2000 issues are addressed. A policy has also been implemented to protect the Group from exposure to Year 2000 risks in all current tender and contractual documentation.

Update of Progress

Summary

A summary of the Normandy Mining Limited Year 2000 Programme and the current status of its five main elements is as follows:

- Business Impact Assessment - assessed the potential impact of the

Year 2000 issue on the Normandy Group business operations. This

was completed in October 1998.

- Technical Analysis -identified which items had the potential to

be impacted by a Year 2000 event and provided an initial

assessment of compliance. This was completed in October 1998.

- Compliance - ensured each critical item of inventory had

appropriate action taken to minimize Year 2000 exposure to

Normandy. This was completed in September 1999.

- External Party Management - addressed the assurance from our

supply chain, joint ventures and associated companies that they

are addressing the Year 2000 issue within their organizations.

The supply chain assessment was completed in September 1999 and

the status will continue to be monitored.

- Business Continuity Planning - addresses the residual Year 2000

risks, which remain after the Compliance and External Party

Assurance work is complete. Normandy's formal Business Continuity

Planning process is scheduled to be completed during October 1999

with implementation an ongoing process.

Compliance Programme

Since the March 1999 Australian Stock Exchange disclosure, significant progress has been made across all operations. The main focus has been the programme of remediation and testing for Normandy's critical systems. This programme incorporated:

- reviewing the compliance of each item;

- testing for Year 2000 compliance for critical items;

- actioning the retirement, replacement or rectification plans for

the items as necessary.

In the March 1999 Disclosure, it was noted that two systems had been rescheduled to fall outside of our target completion date. The first of these - the SAP business systems implementation at Martha Mine has proceeded on schedule. Processing of live transactions in SAP is due to commence on 1 October 1999. Further configuration management testing of SAP can then proceed.

The reported delay in rectification of the process control software system, operating at three of our sites, has been successfully addressed. Upgraded or replacement systems have been installed and fully tested.

All of the original business critical compliance projects have now been completed.

The remaining compliance test work at Pajingo is associated with the process plant upgrade announced in February 1999. This is due to be completed in early November 1999. Even though the equipment concerned is new and certified compliant by the supplier, the same strict criteria for end-to-end testing used on existing systems is being applied to commissioning critical systems in the upgrade.

This applies equally to the stand-by generators being commissioned at Kasese and the progressive commissioning of items in the upgrade project at Martha Mine.

External Party Management

During this period Normandy continued its programme of contacting all business critical suppliers, customers and business partners to determine their Year 2000 compliance status.

The process of assessing Year 2000 activity for suppliers and customers was completed in September 1999. As part of the Business Continuity Planning programme, Normandy is determining and actioning initiatives to contain or reduce Normandy's exposure to these risks.

Normandy's Year 2000 Programme continues to actively monitor the status of its interests in joint ventures and associated companies through regular progress reports on their individual Year 2000 programmes. All have appropriate Year 2000 programmes underway, have completed their compliance activity on all critical systems and are well progressed with their Business Continuity Planning programme.

As outlined below, TVX Normandy Americas is being dealt with separately.

Business Continuity Planning

The final phase of Normandy's programme, that of Business Continuity Planning is progressing. Implementation of these plans will be the major focus of Normandy's Year 2000 Programme for the remainder of 1999. This is discussed in more detail in answer to question five.

Recent Acquisition - TVX

In April 1999 Normandy Mining Limited formed a strategic alliance with Canadian-based TVX Gold Inc. to form a new company, TVX Normandy Americas (owned 49.9 percent by Normandy and 50.1 percent by TVX).

Warranties and indemnities were given by TVX Gold Inc. in favour of Normandy in respect of the Y2K compliance of the joint venture assets. Normandy is monitoring the progress of TVX Normandy Americas and its joint venture Year 2000 programmes.

Gold production for these operations represents 12% of Normandy's total. Four of the five mines are operated by either AngloGold Limited, Rio Tinto Corporation or Placer Dome Inc. All are listed companies with Year 2000 obligations similar to Normandy's.

4. Are there areas of your company's activities where, in your

company's assessment, material Year 2000 risks will remain after

the company's activities to address the Year 2000 problem are

completed? Examples might include dependencies on third parties

such as utilities. If there will be remaining risks, your

response should describe them.

Yes, there are some risks in this category.

Whilst Normandy cannot guarantee the Year 2000 readiness of any external organization, it is in the process of taking all commercially viable steps to ensure that critical processes are not disrupted by third party problems.

Normandy has investigated key infrastructure items used throughout the organization, including telecommunications and energy, and has developed strategies to address the risks should Year 2000 problems arise.

5. Please describe your company's contingency plan in relation to

Year 2000 issues.

A formalized and structured group wide Year 2000 Business Continuity Planning programme has been adopted and is progressing to schedule. Each of the 25 project sites has developed and is implementing a set of comprehensive contingency, transition and emergency response plans, which formalize and build on those already in existence, but specifically address the consequences of potential Year 2000 problems.

These plans have been built around the basic policy of maintaining production but recognize that risks to safety and the environment are paramount. Normandy's Business Continuity Plans include responses to external infrastructure failure as well as interruptions to the normal operation of business processes.

Normandy's pre-existing joint venture and associated companies are well progressed in their own Year 2000 Business Continuity Planning programmes, and will continue to be monitored as part of the assurance process. Year 2000 risks associated with TVX Normandy Americas are being addressed separately.

This is a Year 2000 disclosure statement for the purposes of the Year 2000 Information Disclosure Act 1999 (if applicable). The Company may be protected by that Act from liability for these statements in certain circumstances.

Ian G Gould

Group Managing Director

Enquiries concerning this report may be directed to: C G Jackson - Executive General Manager - Corporate 100 Hutt Street, Adelaide 5000 South Australia, Australia Telephone: [phone] Facsimile: [phone]