Minco PLC Regulatory News (MIO)

MINCO REPORTS INTERIM RESULTS FOR THE HALF YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2012

Dublin, 28 September 2012 - Minco Plc (AIM | MIO), ("Minco" or the "Company"), the AIM quoted exploration and development company is pleased to report its interim results for the six month period ended 30 June 2012.

Minco is involved in exploration and development activities in Canada at its Buchans zinc-copper-lead-silver volcanogenic massive sulphide ("VMS") properties under joint venture with Buchans Minerals Corporation (BMC - TSX.V, Toronto Stock Exchange) ("Buchans Minerals"), and indirectly in exploring and developing silver-zinc properties in Central Mexico through its 29% shareholding in Xtierra Inc., a company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange.

At 30 June 2012, Minco had working capital of US$17.9 million, including US$18.0 million in cash. At 30 June 2012, and at the date hereof, Minco held 30 million shares in Xtierra Inc. representing a 29% interest. The market value of the Xtierra shares held by Minco at 26 September 2012 was about US$10 million.

FINANCIAL RESULTS FOR SIX MONTHS

Minco Plc recorded a consolidated profit for the six months ended 30 June 2012 of US$106,000, compared to a loss of US$1,163,000 in the same period in 2011. General and administrative expenses for the six months of 2012 were US$326,000 compared to US$383,000 in the first six months of 2011. The conversion of some assets and liabilities to US dollars resulted in a foreign exchange gain of $521,000 for the six months ended 30 June 2012 compared to a foreign exchange loss of US$183,000 for the same period in 2011.

At 30 June 2012, the Company had working capital of US$17.9 million, compared to US$20.3 million at 31 December 2011. Total assets decreased from US$26.1 million at 31 December, 2011 to US$25.8 million at 30 June 2012. Cash and cash equivalents were US$18.0 million at 30 June, 2012, compared to US$20.2 million at December 31, 2011 with the reduction primarily as a result of Cdn$2 million invested in Buchans.

On 30 April 2012, Minco entered into an agreement with Buchans Minerals under which the Company can earn a 51% joint venture interest in Buchan's base metal properties in Newfoundland, Canada by spending $8 million over four years to advance the Lundberg deposits to final feasibility and to further explore Buchans' extensive mineral properties in the historic Buchans mining camp.

In addition, Minco paid Buchans $1 million for an exclusive six month option to evaluate Buchans' Woodstock manganese property in New Brunswick, Canada with a view to potentially entering into a joint venture agreement to develop the property.

Minco also invested US$1.0 million (Cdn$1,000,000) to acquire 15,384,615 shares and 7,692,307 share purchase warrants of Buchans Minerals Corporation in a private placement.

Following the sale of Pallas Green, Minco has also been developing new geological ideas and reviewing a number of exploration properties in Ireland and the UK with the objective of identifying a quality zinc-lead exploration opportunity based on the success of the Irish-type model successfully applied in the identification, discovery and subsequent exploration of the Pallas Green deposits.

LUNDBERG AND ENGINE HOUSE, BUCHANS, NEWFOUNDLAND, CANADA

The Lundberg deposit is a stockwork-type VMS deposit surrounding and extending from the old Buchans mine, containing lower grade zinc, copper, lead and minor silver, and upon which an Inferred Resource of 22.21 million tonnes averaging grades of 1.62% zinc, 0.69% lead, 0.38% copper and 5.81 g/t silver has been outlined. The historic Buchans mine, in central Newfoundland, Canada, operated from 1928 to 1984 and was regarded as one of Canada's richest base metal mines and is reported to have produced about 16 million tonnes of high grade zinc, lead and copper ore over that period.

Under the Agreement with Buchans Minerals, Minco's has the right to earn a 51% joint venture interest in the Buchans' wholly owned subsidiary, 7980736 Canada Inc., which holds the mining claims known as the Buchans property, inclusive of the Lundberg deposit, and the Tulks North property, inclusive of Daniels Pond deposit, and a 49% interest in the Tulks Hill joint venture with Prominex Resources Inc., all of which are located in the historic Buchans mining camp and about 35 kilometres from Teck's currently producing Duck Pond zinc-copper mine.

Minco is required to spend $3.5 million to advance the Lundberg project to the pre-feasibility stage and to further explore Buchans' extensive mineral properties in the Buchans camp over a period of two years. Following completion of the pre-feasibility study Minco will have the option to proceed to complete a final feasibility study by spending a further $4.5 million over the following two years. Should Minco complete the final feasibility study and spend a total of $8 million, it will earn a 51% joint venture interest in all of Buchans' base metal properties in Newfoundland. Minco has expended a total of approximately CDN$650,000 on the ongoing evaluation and drill program to 30 September 2012.

The principal programs currently being carried out by Minco during the first phase are well underway and include drilling, both to infill information on parts of the deposits and also to seek to extend the perimeters of the deposit; a geotechnical program to optimize the pit design; metallurgy and engineering to improve the recoveries, and a preliminary environmental assessment.

Minco's 2012 Drill Program

Minco is currently conducting an 8,000 metre drill program at the Lundberg and adjacent Engine House deposits at Buchans. A total of 5,064 metres of infill and step-out drilling has been completed in 44 drill holes since July. The program is expected to undertake 8,000 metres of drilling in 58 holes and is on-track for completion in late October.

The ongoing drilling program has been designed with multiple objectives, which include: (1) upgrading the majority of the Inferred mineralisation into Indicated mineralisation, for inclusion in the pre-feasibility study;  (2) seeking to expand a number of higher grade areas within the conceptual open pit, specifically both the adjacent "Engine House" deposit and also beneath the old "Lucky Strike Glory Hole"; and (3) seeking to expand the potential size of the Lundberg deposits with step-out exploration holes.

The drilling program to date has been successful in demonstrating continuity of mineralisation within the resource defined in the earlier Preliminary Economic Assessment and the assays received to date have shown good correlation with the previous resource estimates. Additionally, some higher grade mineralisation has been identified outside the original targeted resource, closer to surface and potentially outcropping, in an area suitable for a starter pit for the planned open pit development.  

Assay results from the first twenty-one holes received to date from Minco's drilling program continue to confirm the resource as expected. Multiple mineralized intercepts in the Engine House deposit have been intersected indicating that the mineralized zone may extend up dip along on its eastern margins toward surface. Additional drilling at southern margin the Engine House deposit indicates the potential for expansion of higher grade mineralization to the south.

Within the eastern portion of the Lundberg resource, the first Minco holes angled under the old Lucky Strike glory hole (3439 & 3446); continue to confirm mineralization within this key portion of the deposit. Hole 3446 in particular ended in mineralization and will be extended in future drilling.

Wide intercepts often ranging between 30 to 50 metres of mineralization were commonly intersected. Among the highlights returned from the Engine House was an intercept in hole H-12-3445 of 1.60 metres averaging 9.06% combined base metals comprising 0.43% copper, 2.08% lead, 6.55% zinc, 12.4 g/t silver and 0.20 g/t gold between 75.0 and 76.6 metres depth. 

Assays are currently awaited for around 40% of the remaining drilling, including the higher grade zone, and the drill program will be completed by the end of October with outstanding assays to follow.

Ongoing Pre-Feasibility Work

Additionally, Minco has commenced a program of geotechnical evaluation for the purposes of the proposed Lundberg open pit design. Also a program of environmental review to aid in the pre-feasibility process and to plan for environmentally responsible mine development is underway.

A number of other programs are planned to complete the pre-feasibility process, including pit optimisation studies, metallurgical testwork to demonstrate recoveries and concentrate grades for the new resource as defined by the recent drilling, concentrate marketing studies. These programs will lead to the generation of a practical flow sheet and a preliminary surface layout for the planned operation. This work is being carried out on Minco's behalf by experienced consulting groups and consulting engineers with relevant expertise in each of the specific fields of study.

 It is intended that the final Lundberg pre-feasibility report will be consolidated by a recognised engineering house from these constituent elements. This final work will include a preliminary mine and mill design and capital and operating cost estimates. It is expected that the work will be completed in the first half of 2013.

In August 2011, a positive Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) was completed on the Lundberg deposit by Wardrop Engineering, a Tetra Tech Company. The PEA is based on a 5,000 tonne per day open pit mining and milling operation over a 10 year mine life. The project's base case is forecast to provide a pre-tax internal rate of return ("IRR") of 43.94% and a net present value ("NPV") at a 6% discount rate of CDN$217.8 million at base case metal prices of 1.22 US$/lb Zinc, 3.62 US$/lb Copper, 1.10 US$/lb Lead and 22.74 US$/oz. Silver.

*Source Wardrop Engineering PEA on Lundberg and Engine House Deposits (11 August 2011)

The PEA is based on Inferred Mineral Resources, which are not Mineral Reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. Inferred Mineral Resources are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as Mineral Reserves and there is therefore no certainty that the conclusions of the PEA will be realized.

The PEA is based on processing only the Lundberg and Engine House resource and does not include the Daniels Pond or Tulks Hill resources. As Minco moves towards completing a pre-feasibility study on the Property, it will evaluate the Daniels Pond and Tulks Hill as possible satellite deposits contributing to a central Lundberg processing facility. 

Drill hole results from partial assays received to date are summarized as follows:

Note: All holes drilled vertically from surface except 3439 & 3446. Complete assay results are available on Minco's website at www.minco.ie.

WOODSTOCK MANGANESE OPTION, NEW BRUNSWICK, CANADA

In April 2012, Minco paid Buchans $1 million for an exclusive six month option to evaluate the Woodstock manganese property located in New Brunswick, Canada, with a view of potentially entering into a joint venture agreement to develop the property. If during the exclusive option period Minco elects to develop the Woodstock project, the form and terms of a joint-venture agreement will be negotiated between Minco and Buchans prior to the expiry of the Woodstock Option.

Minco's evaluation work over the past five months has been directed at assessing the development potential of the Woodstock manganese deposits, using modern processing technologies, in light of the long term outlook for the manganese markets. Minco undertook a technical overview of the Woodstock manganese deposits including a review of all available information on the project, especially with respect to more recent metallurgical test work.

The programs completed by Minco included a review of the historical geological information, and the more recent drilling by Buchan's in 2011, to assess the grades and the continuity.

Minco also reviewed the bench scale metallurgical test work carried out by Thibault & Associates Inc., Chemical Engineering Consultants, of Fredericton, N.B. which indicates that the Plymouth deposit maybe be amenable to processing via hydro metallurgical methods to produce high purity manganese products such as electrolytic manganese metal (EMM), electrolytic dioxide (EMD), and manganese carbonate.

In 2011 Buchans retained Thibault to complete a bench scale test program for development of a hydrometallurgical flow sheet for recovery of manganese on a representative composite sample of the Plymouth deposit. The recently completed test program was aimed at continuing to identify and optimize a leach process to extract the manganese from the deposit, as well as new tests designed to purify the resulting leach solution to produce an electrolyte suitable for the production of EMM.

The composite sample, taken from Buchans' 2011 drill program, had an average weighted grade of 11.07% manganese and 15.25% iron. The bench scale test program successfully demonstrated that, at optimum leach conditions, leach recoveries averaging 96.6% (range of 94% to 98%) could be achieved using a single stage sulphuric acid leach. In addition, the leach solution purification portion of the test program resulted in the production of a high purity manganese sulphate electrolyte, which is expected to produce high grade electrolytic manganese metal (EMM).

In August 2012, Minco retained Thibault & Associates Inc. to complete a preliminary review of the environmental and regulatory requirements for the development of the Woodstock property which concluded that no readily apparent roadblocks have been identified that would prevent the project from proceeding. The review recommends an early start on the environmental baseline assessment and that a prefeasibility constraint analysis be conducted to provide additional information regarding the project permitting.

The 5,800 hectare Woodstock Manganese property has excellent infrastructure, including railway lines (16 km west) as well as the TransCanada Highway and major electrical transmission lines located less that 5 kilometres to the east. The Plymouth deposit is located less than 10 kilometres east of the US border and Highway Route 95 (an extension of US Interstate 95) passes less than a kilometre south of the deposit.

A portion of the money advanced by Minco was used by Buchans in August 2012 to acquire the surface rights over a portion of the Plymouth deposit. The acquired property covers an area of 130 acres of forested land and was acquired from four vendors for aggregate consideration of $380,000, an upfront bonus of $10,000 and 40,000 warrants. In addition, the vendors will collectively retain a one percent gross sales royalty payable upon commencement of commercial production on the acquired property.

The review carried out by Minco to date indicates that the Woodstock manganese projects could have the potential to be developed into a significant long-term, mine and processing facility capable of producing high purity EMM and potentially creating significant value for shareholders. Minco's evaluation to date of Woodstock manganese deposits appears to confirm the apparent development potential of this project as a new long term producer of EMM and the work to date would appears to provide a sound foundation upon which to advance the project towards production.

XTIERRA INC.

At 30 June 2012 and the date hereof, Minco held 30 million shares in Xtierra Inc ("Xtierra"), a company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "XAG", representing a 29% interest.

Xtierra was established by Minco in 2008 to facilitate the financing and development of Minco's precious and base metal properties located in the Central Silver Belt in the States of Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi, Mexico. In August 2008, Xtierra acquired all of Minco's assets located in Mexico though the acquisition from Minco of Orca Mineral Limited and issued 30 million shares to Minco.

The flagship property for Xtierra is the Bilbao Project, a polymetallic sulphide and oxide replacement zinc-lead-silver-copper deposit with a NI 43-101 compliant resource of 10.62 million tonnes at 2.00% Pb, 0.19% Cu, 2.13% Zn & 53.81 g/t Ag in the indicated category and 0.43 million tonnes at 1.73% Pb, 0.18% Cu, 1.44& Zn & 46.39 g/t Ag in the inferred category.

For the past three years Xtierra's efforts have been mainly focused on advancing the development of the Bilbao Silver-Zinc-Lead-Copper project towards production. The highlights of the work completed at Bilbao in 2012 year to date include:

·; A 10 hole infill drilling programme totaling 2,000m was completed on the in July 2012 with very encouraging results;

·; A five hole drilling programme of 2000 metres was completed in April 2012 in the southern part of the Bilbao project area to investigate silver rich targets immediately to the south of the Bilbao deposit which confirmed the continuity of the silver targets a further 100 metres to the south with an intersection of 5.10 metres at an average grade of 372.5 g/t Ag;

·; Ongoing development plan and feasibility study on the Bilbao deposit, including metallurgical test work on the sulphide and transition ores, detailed mine planning for underground development and tailings management and disposal design;

As part of the Bilbao development plan and in conjunction with the ongoing metallurgical testing and preparation of the Feasibility Study, Xtierra has continued exploration work in and around the Bilbao deposit area, as well as in other mineral claims it holds within the immediate Panfilo Natera Mining District in the search for Bilbao-type mineralization.

2012 Infill Drilling Program at Bilbao

In September 2012, Xtierra announced the results of a 2,032 metre 9-hole programme of infill drilling on the main Bilbao deposit carried out in July 2012. The objectives of the campaign were to check grade variability and to increase confidence in the resource blocks that would be mined within the first three to four years of underground production.

The drilling, which was centred in the previously drilled 50m grid, also permitted a refinement of the morphology of the main zone of mineralization which comprises the bulk of the deposit resource.

Results show very strong mineralization of excellent thickness has been intersected during the infill drilling programme. Hole Z4 intersected an almost continuous zone of mineralization at an average grade of 6.47% Pb+Zn together with 54g/t silver over approximately 194m. Intersections of over 50m of resource grade or better mineralization were encountered in most drill holes which were equal to or better than anticipated. There is good overall agreement with grades intersected in the infill drill-holes when compared with those drilled earlier and which were used for calculation of the existing resource estimate. There appears to be a slight increase overall in zinc grades in the infill drill holes compared to earlier drilling.

The infill drilling has confirmed the continuity of the main mineralization between the previous 50m spaced grid pattern in the core of the Bilbao resource on 25m spacing which may enable some of the resources to be upgraded from indicated to a measured category. Good to excellent base metal and silver grades have been substantiated in all of the verification drill-holes. Drill hole Z10 encountered a small extension of the massive sulfide pod in the eastern part of the main mineralized zone although with lower lead-zinc-silver grades but with a stronger copper-gold signature (0.29g/t gold and 0.41% copper over 6.0m).

The results of the infill drilling are now being incorporated into the geological model and a revised and updated independent resource estimate will be calculated for the feasibility study.

The potential to identify additional mineralized bodies at the Bilbao property is believed to be excellent. The occurrence of stacked lenses of mineralization in sediments close to the contact of the La Blanca granodiorite suggests that similar bodies may also occur along that contact elsewhere on Xtierra's property or district-wide in a similar geological context.

A programme of five drill holes (1,928 metres) was completed in April 2012 and confirms the down dip continuity of the argentiferous breccia zone for a further one hundred metres to the south, with a particularly strong development in drill-hole X96 which intersected 5.10m at a grade of 372.5g/t silver. The remaining four holes intersected narrow widths of +200 g/t silver.

The richer silver veins trend NNE-SSW, a direction which accords with similar vein trends to the north of the Bilbao deposit, within the La Blanca granite. Discovery of this zone of silver-rich veins beneath and in addition to the main skarn-replacement zinc-silver-lead-copper mineral deposit is expected to eventually contribute to the silver content of the Bilbao resource.

Bilbao Feasibility Study

In July 2010, Xtierra retained Dowding, Reynard and Associates (DRA), a recognized leader in the field of mine design, mine engineering, mineral processing, project management and mine construction, to oversee and complete the Bilbao Feasibility Study. DRA is involved in oversight of all of the component parts of the Feasibility Study and is also managing all the metallurgical test work.

The Feasibility Study is comprised of metallurgical test work on the oxide, mixed and sulphide mineralization, geotechnical studies, hydrogeological studies, topographic surveys, conceptual mine planning and engineering studies, preliminary capital and operating costs and environmental and permitting studies.

Based on the metallurgical results received to date it is expected that the Feasibility Study will recommend the initial development of an underground mine and the processing of the sulphide and mixed transition ores. The development of the open pit mine and processing of the oxide ore would be deferred and would occur later in the mine life, subject to further metallurgical testing of the oxide ores to optimum and economic recoveries. The development of the underground mine before the open pit will, by its very nature, involve higher capital and development costs than if the open pit was developed first.

During the year to date in 2012, work was conducted in developing detailed mine plans for the underground part of the deposit, which included the evaluation of three underground mining options. Two options are long hole stoping with paste backfill. The third option is open stoping with pillars/no backfill.

Completion of the Feasibility Study is now anticipated in the fourth quarter of 2012 with the recent completion of the infill drilling and update of the mineral resource.

Items to be completed in the Bilbao Feasibility Study include the following:

·; Updating the 43-101 compliant resource once the assays from the recent ten hole infill drilling program are received. This programme has also provided density determination for the sulphide, transition oxide and waste material as well as geochemical analyses.

·; Updated geotechnical data from the infill drilling whole core samples. This data is required to confirm potential pillar dimensions and spacing for one of the mining options.

·; Metallurgical test work follow-up - sulphide and transition core samples obtained from strategic locations within the infill drilling programme have been sent to SGS - Lakefield for bench scale/open cycle test work. The recoveries and related metal-in-concentrate will be compared to the base case benchmarks.

·; Complete the process plant design

·; Tailings management - paste tailings test work is in progress and a preliminary plant design and related capital and operating costs will be estimated. A financial analysis will be undertaken to determine if a paste or simply thickened tailings process will be implemented.

·; Environmental - This process will continue as the necessary critical input data becomes available, particularly relating to tailings disposal

Qualified Person

The above technical information has been reviewed and verified by Mr. Terence N McKillen, B.A. (MOD), M.A., M.Sc., P.Geo, Chief Executive Officer. Mr. McKillen is the Qualified Person for the purposes of the AIM Guidance Note on Mining, Oil and Gas Companies dated March 2006.

Mr. McKillen is a graduate in Natural Sciences (Geology) from Trinity College Dublin and holds a Master of Science degree in Mineral Exploration and Mining Geology from the University of Leicester. He has 40 years of exploration experience in Ireland and internationally.

Approval by Directors

The Interim Report for the six months to 30 June 2012 was approved by the Directors on 26 September 2012.

Copies of this announcement will be posted on the Company's website at www.minco.ie and will be available for inspection at the Company's registered office at 27 Hatch Street Lower, Dublin 2, Ireland.

About Minco plc

Minco Plc, registered in the Republic of Ireland and listed on the AIM Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange ("MIO"), is an exploration and development company, currently engaged in zinc-lead exploration in Canada and Ireland and with investments in zinc-silver projects in Mexico through holding 30 million shares (~29%) in Xtierra Inc. listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV-"XAG").

Minco holds 15.4 million shares (~10%) in Buchans Minerals Corporation also listed on the TSXV ("BMC"). Minco also holds a 2% NSR royalty on the Curraghinalt gold property in Northern Ireland which is being explored by Dalradian Resources Inc. (TSX-"DNA").

For further information, www.minco.ie or contact:

The condensed consolidated financial results for the half year ended 30 June 2012 can be viewed at the following link:

http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/4416N_-2012-9-28.pdf