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Intrepid Mines Limited Releases Activities Report for Third Quarter

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  Published in Business and Finance on Thursday, October 29th 2009 at 5:40 GMT by Market Wire
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BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA--(Marketwire - Oct. 29, 2009) - Intrepid Mines Limited (TSX:IAU)(ASX:IAU) (the "Company") is pleased to announce the release of its report for the quarter ended 30 September 2009 regarding mining production, development and exploration activities, as required under ASX listing Rule 5.1.1. as well as the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis and interim financial report for the same period.

The documents are available on the Company's website ([ www.intrepidmines.com ]), will be available shortly with Intrepid's filings on Sedar ([ www.sedar.com ]) and can be reviewed through Marketwire ([ www.marketwire.com ]) or the ASX website ([ www.asx.com.au ]).

Numbers in brackets generally describe performance for the quarter ended 30 September 2009.

All dollar values are United States Dollars unless otherwise stated.

OVERVIEW

Finance

- Paulsens earnings of $6.3 million and $27.2 million (unaudited) before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the three and nine months ended 30 September 2009 respectively.

- Exploration expenditure on the Tujuh Bukit project and Paulsens near mine regional exploration for the three and nine months to September 2009 was $4 million and $9.6 million respectively.

- Non-cash exchange rate losses, depreciation and amortisation expenditure of $7.2 million for the three months and $21 million for the nine months to September 2009 has lead to an accounting group loss after tax of $6.9 million and $1.8 million (unaudited) for the three and nine months ended 30 September 2009 respectively.

- Cash balance at quarter end was $38 million.

Paulsens Operations

- Tenth tonne of gold poured, record diamond drill metres.

- Gold production of 19,107 and 59,279 fine ounces for the three and nine months ended 30 September 2009 respectively.

- Cash costs higher for the September 2009 quarter at $607 per ounce (prior quarter $484 per ounce) primarily as a result of:

-- translating the Australian denominated cash costs into United States dollars at a much stronger exchange rate (September 2009 quarter A$/US$0.8329 vs. June 2009 quarter A$/US$0.7589) -negative impact of $54 per ounce;

-- cost allocation between capital and operating changed significantly during the quarter, with the majority of the cost now being treated as operating (negative impact of $27 per ounce) - a consequence of the production ceasing in March 2010.

-- lower ounces produced- 19,107 ounces versus 20,031 ounces due to lower grade (grade of 6.9 g/t versus 7.4 g/t) (negative impact of $26 per ounce).

-- mining cost increase (negative impact of $16 per ounce) as a result of:

--- increase in diamond drilling;

--- increase in hand held stoping due to increased complexity of ore bodies.

- Cash costs for the nine months to September 2009 at $472 per ounce.

- Cash costs per ounce for the December 2009 quarter are expected to be higher due to:

-- continued appreciation of Australian dollar against United States dollar;

-- expected lower production of around 16,000 ounces; and

-- recognising Paulsens employee termination entitlements.

Tujuh Bukit

- Heads of Agreement ("HOA") entered into in respect of the Tujuh Bukit Sulphide copper-gold project with Vale Exploration Pty Ltd ("Vale"). This allows Intrepid to focus on creating near-term value through the development of the near surface gold-silver oxide project on a standalone basis while allowing the large scale, deeper sulphide copper-gold project to be progressed in association with a world class partner. Intrepid and Vale agreed to extend the terms to finalise formal documentation by 15 December 2009.

- Drilling from the northern portion of Zone B continues to deliver good results with broad oxide zones and some higher grade zones.

- Preliminary metallurgical testwork completed and indicates a recovery range of 82% to 91% for gold and 72% to 89% for silver in the completely oxidised zones.

Exploration

- At Taviche in Mexico, a 1,561 metre diamond drilling program at the Higo Blanco jasperoid/vein breccia complex was completed. Significant intercepts include:

-- HBET-01 19.45-31.1 metres: 11.62 metres at 0.7 g/t gold and 20.13 g/t silver

-- HBET-02 14.9-73.05 metres: 58.15 metres at 0.1 g/t gold and 65.1 g/t silver.

-- HBET-03 85-119.2 metres: 34.2 metres at 0.13 g/t gold and 211.7 g/t silver.

-- HBAD-06 44.2-49.65 metres: 5.45 metres at 0.02 g/t gold and 201.5 g/t silver.

-- HBAD-08 63.85-64.8 metres: 0.95 metres at 0.056 g/t gold and 1,140.0 g/t silver.

Brad Gordon, Chief Executive Officer

29 October 2009