Oxus Mining plc ("Oxus") (OXS.L) is pleased to announce that on 14 January 2003 it appointed Standard Bank London Limited ("Standard Bank") and WestLB AG ("West LB") to act jointly as exclusive lead arrangers and underwriters in respect of a project finance facility of up to US$30 million. The facility will be used to fund the development of the Amantaytau Goldfields Phase 1 (Oxides) Project in Uzbekistan.

The facility is conditional upon underwriting and the satisfaction of certain conditions precedent. Assuming these conditions precedent are met, drawdown is expected to take place in March 2003.

Amantaytau Phase 1, a 1 million ounce open pit gold project, is Oxus’ most advanced project. It is located within the 192 square kilometre licence area of Amantaytau Goldfields, a 50/50 joint venture between Oxus and the Uzbek Government, just 30 kilometres from Muruntau, one of the world's largest open pit gold mines.

It was originally proposed that the project would be developed using Heap Leach technology. However, Oxus has revised its development strategy and it is now proposed to utilise contract mining with processing through a conventional milling and Carbon-In-Pulp (CIP) treatment plant. The revised strategy will ensure that the capital expenditure required for the development of the project will fall within the US$30 million being arranged by Standard Bank and West LB and will significantly increase gold recoveries.

The design and construction of the plant has already commenced and the first gold pour is scheduled for the last quarter of this year. The feasibility on the Amantaytau Phase 2 (Sulphides) Project will start shortly and this project is expected to produce an additional 2.03 million ounces over 10 years. 

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Contacts:

Oxus Mining plc
Tel: +44 (0)1483 714411
John Donald, COO

Brown Shipley Corporate Finance
Tel: +44 (0)20 7606 9833
Bill Staple

Website: www.oxusminingplc.com
Email: oxus@oxus.demon.co.uk

Other information
The Standard Bank Group has total assets of US$33 billion and employees in excess of 35,000 people worldwide. It is one of the emerging market’s leading banking and financial services organisations and is a leading participant in trade finance, precious and base metals trading and project finance with a strong mining capability based in London.

WestLB is Germany's 4th largest banking group and is rated AA+ / AA1 by Standard & Poors and Moodys respectively. WestLB is fast developing into a major force in the Metals & Mining Sector, with an ability to provide project and structured finance, corporate debt, structured trade and commodity finance, and metals hedging facilities in all three major time zones. WestLB has a long history over many years of providing commodity receivables-based finance to metals and mining clients throughout the Former Soviet Union, and Amantaytau represents a logical step towards project financing new production over the longer term.