Oxiana Bids for Agincourt

- Oxiana Ltd. announced an agreed A$415- million, all-share offer for Agincourt Resources on Jan. 29, 2007. The Agincourt board recommended that in the absence of a superior proposal the company’s shareholders accept the offer. Newmont Mining, which holds a 19.9% interest in Agincourt, signed an option and prebid acceptance deed supporting the offer. The transaction is expected to close by mid-April 2007.

Agincourt’s prime asset is its Martabe gold and silver project on the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The project has a JORC-compliant resource of 5.3 million oz of gold and 54.8 million oz of silver hosted within a large epithermal system. Agincourt acquired the project from Newmont in July 2006 for $80.25 million. Newmont acquired its ownership interest in Agincourt as part of that transaction.

Newmont acquired the Martabe project when it purchased Normandy Mining in early 2002. Newmont elected to sell it after determining that it would not meet the company’s internal criteria for minimum annual production and other financial hurdles. Agincourt purchased Martabe based on studies indicating that the project could be developed to produce 270,000 oz/y at attractive rates of return. A final feasibility study is nearing completion. Capital investment to develop the project is estimated at $165 million.

Agincourt also owns and operates the Wiluna gold mine in Western Australia, which produced 113,600 oz of gold during the company’s 2005/2006 financial year, and Agincourt holds a 57% interest in Nova Energy, which owns the Lake Way/Centipede advanced uranium development project in Western Australia, as well as uranium exploration projects elsewhere in Australia and Guinea, West Africa.

Oxiana owns and operates the Sepon gold and copper mines in Laos and the Golden Grove base and precious metals operation in Western Australia and is currently constructing the Prominent Hill copper- gold mine in South Australia. The company’s market capitalization totaled about A$4.1 billion as of late January 2007.