Mission Achieves First Commercial Scale Jatropha Crush

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - June 24, 2010) - Mission NewEnergy Ltd. (ASX: [ MBT ]), a vertically integrated biodiesel refiner, and one of the world's largest Jatropha plantation companies, is pleased to announce that it has aggregated, crushed and shipped commercial quantities of Jatropha oil from its extensive network across India to its biodiesel refinery in Malaysia.

From its Jatropha farming operation, Mission has aggregated approximately 1,500 tonnes of seed, which the Company believes to be the single largest ever compilation of Jatropha seeds. "We are extremely pleased with the Indian operation's ability to effectively consolidate mass quantities of seeds from such a wide geographic dispersion," said Subhas Pattnaik, General Manager of Mission's Indian Operations.

"The achievement of this milestone clearly demonstrates Mission's logistical capability to harvest commercial quantities of Jatropha from the network built over the last three years. Further, given the maturity profile and growth objectives of Mission's contract farming acreage, this volume of harvest provides confidence that Mission will become feedstock self-sufficient utilizing Jatropha oil," said Nathan Mahalingam Managing Director of Mission NewEnergy.

Utilizing only basic oil expelling techniques, Mission has thus far extracted and shipped approximately 188 tonnes of Crude Jatropha Oil ("CJO"). This volume, as well as the cost of seeds purchased and other logistical costs associated with the aggregation were in line with management's expectations. The Company is now introducing solvent extraction methods which have shown will lead to a material increase in oil yield realization, from the current 16% to a range of 20% to 30%.

Based on Mission's long-term contract farming rates, oil yields using solvent extraction processes and after byproduct realization, Mission's cost base for Jatropha-based biodiesel, landed in Houston USA, is approximately US$64 per barrel (US$1.53 per gallon). This cost basis represents a 34% discount to the current price of Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (refined diesel fuel), which trades at a premium to unrefined crude oil. Importantly, this cost basis does not include the proposed Biodiesel Blender Credit in the United States, which would further lower the effective cost to approximately US$23 per barrel (US$0.54 per gallon).

Mr. Mahalingam added, "Having validated the economics and viability of Mission's vision to become a fully integrated biodiesel company with a sustainable supply of captive feedstock, we turn our focus to continuing to increase the harvest volume while lowering per unit costs."

About Mission NewEnergy Limited:
Mission NewEnergy (ASX: [ MBT ]) is a vertically integrated biodiesel firm based in Australia, with operations in India and Malaysia. It owns and operates a 100,000 tpa (approximately 30 million gallons per annum) biodiesel plant in Malaysia, and is currently commissioning a 250,000 tpa (approximately 75 million gpa) biodiesel plant with KNM Process Systems SdnBhd as a turnkey contractor adjacent to the 100,000 tpa plant.

Mission NewEnergy Limited is a company:

listed on the ASX with its operations in Malaysia and India;
that owns and operates a 100,000 tpa (approx. 30 million gallons p.a.) biodiesel plant at Kuantan in Malaysia producing biodiesel that exceeds international specifications (EN14214 & ASTM 6751-D);
that is the only non-German biodiesel producer to be certified by AGQM, the German Biodiesel production process certification body;
that is currently finalising handover of a 250,000 tpa (approx. 75 million gallons p.a.) biodiesel plant with KNM Process Systems SdnBhd as a turnkey contractor using Axens' 2^nd generation, heterogeneous catalyst, trans-esterification technology and adjacent to the 100,000 tpa plant;
that will initially use Crude Palm Oil (CPO) as the feedstock for its biodiesel plants in Malaysia;
that is rapidly developing its upstream feedstock business in India, which is focusing on a drought-resistant perennial plant (Jatropha Curcas) that grows in marginal/poor soil. Jatropha is easy to establish, grows quickly, produces seeds for over 40 years and importantly is inedible;
that will ultimately replace CPO with Jatropha Oil as its feedstock for its biodiesel plants;
that owns and operates two wind energy turbines of 1.65 MW each in India which sell electricity to a Western Indian utility under a 13 year power purchase agreement; and
that owns two patent-pending, lab and pilot-tested technologies for production of ethanol from a wide variety of agricultural waste material at a cost substantially lower than reported by competing enzyme based cellulosic ethanol technologies.

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Mission Achieves First Commercial Scale Jatropha Crush