Greenwich, Conn.; Houston and London: January 10, 2008 – First Reserve Corporation, the leading energy-focused private equity firm, together with partners AMCI Capital and Pamodzi Investment Holdings, today announced that it has made an equity investment in the creation of a new uranium company based in South Africa.

The uranium and gold assets known as the Cooke Section and owed by Randfontein Estates Limited, a subsidiary of Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited, will be sold into a new independent company (“Cooke”) for US$420 million. First Reserve and partners will acquire a 60% interest in Cooke and focus the company on developing both the uranium and gold resources. Harmony will retain a 40% interest in Cooke.

The Cooke assets are comprised of three operational gold mines, a gold milling plant, a large tailings dump with significant uranium content as well as lower-grade gold and uranium dumps. Uranium, which is a byproduct of gold production from the mines, has accumulated in the dumps for over 20 years, and is today a significant above-ground resource which can be reprocessed and sold as a fuel source for the nuclear power industry.

“The investment provides First Reserve and its partners at AMCI Capital & Pamodzi a unique set of assets with a strong operating partner in Harmony to help optimize the uranium resource potential,” said Alex Krueger, Managing Director of First Reserve Corporation. “The business plan involves purchasing the existing gold mine infrastructure and tailings dumps and constructing a new large-scale plant to reprocess the dumps for the significant uranium content.  The gold assets will provide near term cash flow and represent additional upside through redevelopment and expansion of the mines to produce both the gold and uranium resources.”

At a planned production level of over 2.2 million pounds per year, Cooke would be one of the 10 largest producers of uranium in operation. Worldwide demand for uranium is expected to increase from 175 million pounds in 2007 to between 235 million to 275 million pounds by 2020 as a result of significant growth in nuclear power generation assets.

“The strategic plan for this investment is to create a platform for a new world-class uranium producer at a time when uranium demand is increasing substantially,” said Jeff Quake, Director of First Reserve Corporation. “This investment also continues to expand First Reserve’s coal and iron ore mining expertise to include uranium and gold commodities with attractive growth opportunities.”