A new nickel exploration initiative in Western Australia"s acclaimed Forrestania Greenstone Belt - currently one of Australia"s fastest growing nickel exploration and mining regions - is set to start soon after the planned May 2007 ASX listing of Perth-based Great Western Exploration Limited.

Patersons Securities Ltd is lead manager and underwriter to the proposed issue. Patersons Securities Ltd head of research Mark Simpson will be a leading speaker at The ASIA Miner Investing in Mining Conference starting on Monday, May 7 in Sydney. For more information to attend this conference go to the Investing in Mining page on this website. Mark will present: Developments in China and the varied impact on commodities - an Australian perspective

Meanwhile, Great Western has launched a $3 million public share offer as part of the proposed demerger of the nickel exploration assets of Uran Limited.

Great Western - currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of Uran Limited - has lodged a Prospectus for the offer of 15 million shares at 20c each to raise $3 million. Of the 15 million public offer shares, 11 million are being offered on a priority basis to Uran shareholders. In addition, to up to 5 million shares will be distributed under a demerger plan to Uran shareholders on a pro rata basis. Great Western is aiming to list on the ASX in late May.

The demerger plan announced by Uran in January, involves the transfer of Uran's 80%-owned Mt Gibb and Hatters Hill Projects, held in joint venture with Jindalee Resources Ltd, to Great Western.

Uran acquired 80% of the Mt Gibb and Hatters Hill Projects in 2004 and completed extensive airborne and ground geophysical survey programs, successfully delineating 12km of previously unrecognised southern extension of the Forrestania nickel belt and highlighting untested magnetic and electrically conductive anomalies. Subsequent scout RAB drilling and shallow percussion drilling intersected isolated ore grade gold and anomalous nickel values at the projects.

The Mt Gibb Project is located along strike from Western Areas Ltd's producing Flying Fox Nickel Mine and Digger Rocks' nickel deposit, and within the same belt as the highly prospective nickel tenement acquired last year by Kagara Zinc Limited.

Western Areas has recently started production at Flying Fox and is currently mining the T Zero lens, with ore treated at the Emily Ann nickel mine, located 75km to the north-east. The high-grade Flying Fox discovery, which extends to some 1000 metres below surface, represents one of the best nickel discoveries in Australia of recent times.

Great Western managing director, Tom Bannerman, says the company was keen to realise the value of both the Mt Gibb and Hatters Hill projects, by resuming a focused program of nickel exploration using appropriate techniques.

"The recent discovery history of the region - combined with the dramatic increases in the price of nickel - has shaped our decision to re-float Great Western and establish a focused exploration company with the potential to deliver new significant discoveries in this exciting region," Tom Bannerman says.

"With Flying Fox being a high-grade deposit with very modest strike length and amazing vertical depth extent, currently in excess of one kilometre, the importance of deep drilling electromagnetic targets in the belt becomes paramount," he added.

"We believe that our previous work, which involves only first pass shallow drilling, did not adequately test the potential of these projects before the company's change of direction in the uranium sector."

"We are planning an exploration program at Forrestania including a program of deep drilling, initially to test four priority EM targets, as well as a major new airborne EM survey which will cover our entire tenement package not covered by the previous 2004 survey," Tom Bannerman says.