The following statement has been released by Oxus Gold and is issued in London by Bankside Consultants on behalf of the Company.

Société Générale to provide $31 million facility to Amantaytau Goldfields

LONDON: 26 September 2001 - Oxus Gold plc ("Oxus" or "the Company") (OXS.L) has signed a commitment letter with Société Générale in respect of an underwritten facility for $31 million (£21.4 million) in order to construct the first phase of its Amantaytau Goldfields ("AGF") project in Uzbekistan.

The Société Générale facility, which is subject to the satisfaction of various conditions precedent including detailed loan documentation and finalisation of acceptable construction contracts, includes a primary loan to AGF of $24 million (£16.6 million), plus a project cost overrun facility of $7 million (£4.8 million). It is expected that the loan will be available for drawdown by 30 November 2001. The project will take 10 months to construct and first gold production is expected in the last quarter of 2002. First full year production is expected to be 170,000 ounces of gold.

SRK Consulting Engineers ("SRK") recently completed a detailed audit of the bankable feasibility study for the AGF project, a one million tonne a year open pit heap leach operation in the Kyzylkum region of central Uzbekistan. SRK confirmed the published reserves and resources for the open pit gold mine and indicated the considerable potential for additional resources.

SRK also confirmed that a production rate of one million tonnes of ore a year is achievable and that over the nine year mine life AGF should produce 637,500 ounces of gold and 6,624,000 ounces of silver. They estimated the initial capital cost to be US$35.8 million and confirmed that the ten month construction schedule was reasonable and achievable. Cash operating costs are estimated at $113 an ounce and on an all equity basis and at a gold price of $260 per ounce the project has a payback period of 1.6 years and an internal rate of return of 42.8%.

The robust nature of the AGF project and the significant cash flow that it will generate, together with current low interest rates, provide Oxus with an opportunity to supplement the Société Générale construction funds with corporate debt finance instead of new equity. Negotiations are underway to determine the appropriate structure for this debt which, if obtained, Oxus will use to provide a subordinated loan to AGF.

The second phase of the Amantaytau project is the development of an underground gold mine. The preliminary feasibility study on this mine has been completed and has been designed to produce an additional average 190,000 ounces of gold a year over a 10 year mine life at an average cash cost of $115 an ounce. Production is expected to begin in 2005.

Total output from the combined open pit and underground operations is expected to be 2.6 million ounces of gold and 6.6 million ounces of silver over the 14 year mine life based on the existing mineable reserves. AGF currently has total resources of 13 million ounces of gold and 160 million ounces of silver, and total mineable reserves of 3.0 million ounces of gold and 9.2 million ounces of silver. Oxus has a 50% interest in AGF. The feasibility studies to date are based on only three of the 18 known gold and silver deposits within the 192 square kilometre AGF licence area and additional drilling is underway to upgrade the existing, and investigate potential new, gold and silver resources and reserves.

In addition to AGF, Oxus has two other projects in Central Asia at advanced feasibility stage. Jerooy is a gold project in Kyrgyzstan and Khandiza is a zinc-copper-lead and silver project in Uzbekistan. Oxus' total attributable mineable reserves from all projects, audited by independent consultants, are:

- gold - 2.9 million ounces;

- silver - 29.6 million ounces;

- zinc - 433,000 tonnes;

- copper - 50,000 tonnes; and

- lead - 173,000 tonnes.

Oxus also has exploration licences covering some further 7,000 square kilometres where the exploration potential is considered excellent.

END

Contacts:

Oxus Gold
Roger Turner, CEO
Tel: +44 (0)1483 714 411

Oxus Gold
Richard Wilkins, Executive Director
Tel: +44 (0)1483 714 411

Oxus Gold
Michael de Villiers, Finance Director
Tel: +44 (0)1483 714 411

Bankside Consultants, London
Keith Irons
Tel: +44 (0)20 7220 7477