HISTORY

Nord Resources Corporation was established in 1971 to explore and develop mining projects around the world. Nord became a public company and was traded on the NASDAQ system. The largest prospect was a huge titanium oxide (rutile) deposit located in Sierra Leone, Africa. The mine was brought into production in 1978, and remained an active producer until the mid 1990's. During the 1970's Nord also concentrated on the acquisition of domestic industrial minerals and oil and gas. It began exploration activity in the Australia/South Pacific region through its affiliated company, Nord Pacific.

In the 1980's, Nord's titanium operation in Africa became the largest producer of titanium dioxide in the world, and Nord stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Nord developed a kaolin operation in Georgia to serve the paper products industry. Nord Pacific identified a potentially large gold resource in Papua New Guinea and began development of a copper mine in Australia.

In the 1990's Nord continued its titanium and kaolin operations. Nord Pacific (then owned 43% by Nord Resources) brought the Girilambone Copper Mine (SX-EW) into production and it acquired an interest in the huge Ramu nickel laterite property in Papua New Guinea. In January of 1995, Nord's titanium operation was closed due to civil unrest in Sierra Leone. This event eventually led to very difficult times for both Nord Resources and Nord Pacific. The loss of titanium revenue and depletion of reserves at the Girilambone Copper mine left both companies with very little cash flow. Nord was forced to sell assets including the titanium and kaolin operations, and Nord Pacific had to sell its copper and nickel projects. Nord Resources was de-listed from the New York Stock Exchange in the late 1990's. One of the properties remaining was the Johnson Camp copper mine near Tucson, Arizona. It had been operated by Cyprus in the 1980's and by Arimetco in the 1990's. Copper prices were low at that time, but the Johnson Camp property had substantial remaining reserves and very good prospects for expansion.