Minco PLC Regulatory News (MIO)

PALLAS GREEN ZINC-LEAD PROJECT ECONOMIC AT ITS CURRENT STAGE

UPDATED JORC COMPLIANT RESOURCE ESTIMATE OF 25.9 MILLION TONNES

€13 MILLION BUDGET PROPOSED FOR 2011

2010 DRILLING UPDATE

Dublin, 25 February, 2011 - Minco Plc (London AIM | MIO), reports that Xstrata Zinc has informed Minco that Xstrata's preliminary assessment indicates that the Pallas Green Zinc-Lead Project in Co. Limerick, Ireland, in which Minco holds a 23.6% participating interest, is economic at its current stage.

Xstrata Zinc has proposed a €13 million (US$18 million) exploration and development programme for 2011. The proposed budget comprises continued definition and exploration drilling coupled with an initial Pre-feasibility Study.

The Pre-Feasibility Study and related costs are budgeted at about €3 million, while the proposed €10 million drilling program is split about two thirds infill definition drilling and one third exploration drilling. Planned drilling is about 100,000 metres in about 230 holes.

Updated Resource Estimate

Xstrata has provided Minco with a revised JORC compliant resource estimate as of December 31, 2010 and dated February 18, 2011. The revised resource is calculated at both a 4% and a 6% cut off. The 4% zinc equivalent cut off resource amounts to 25.9 million tonnes of inferred resources at an average grade of 7.51% Zn and 1.38% Pb (8.89% Zn eq) while the 6% zinc equivalent cut off resource amounts to 17.6 million tonnes of inferred resources at an average grade of 8.96% Zn and 1.72% Pb (10.68% Zn eq).

The new resource (at the 6% Zn eq cut off) is 56% greater in tonnage than the previously published JORC compliant resource (also calculated at 6% cut off) published in August 2009 while the new resource (at the 4% Zn eq cut off) is approximately 7.5% greater than the revised resource published in August 2010.

2011 Exploration Programme

Minco has not yet agreed to the proposed 2011 work programme or the allocations between exploration drilling in the Caherconlish area and infill definition drilling of the Tobermalug Zone. Minco has proposed that drilling in 2011 should focus on ongoing exploration in the prospective Caherconlish area and also within the wider Pallas Green property, where only about 25% of the prospective trend has been explored in any detail.

Minco believes that the lead/zinc deposits at Pallas Green have not yet been fully delineated and that the expected larger tonnage, and higher grade, parts of the deposit have not yet been found. Minco is also confident that further exploration will lead to an increase in the size of the Pallas Green resource and to the discovery of new mineralized zones within the Caherconlish area, as has been demonstrated over the past three years, and to new discoveries elsewhere on the property.

Pre-Feasibility Study in 2011

Xstrata's proposed 2011 programme envisages the preparation of a Pre-Feasibility Study for a 4,500 tonnes per day mine, with an annual production of about 150,000 tonnes of zinc and an indicated mine start-up date of 2017.

Exploration Update - 2010 Drilling Programme

Approximately 168 drill holes were completed or in progress at the end of 2010 for a total of 60,176 metres drilled during the year. Nineteen drill rigs continue to explore and define the greater Tobermalug area, as well as Knockroe and Caherconlish South. It is expected that additional drill rigs will be added to the programme in 2011 to handle the enlarged drilling programme.

For much of the fourth quarter 2010, drilling was focused on lateral extension targets around the perimeter of the lenses of zinc-lead mineralisation which constitute the Tobermalug and Northwest Extension (NWX) deposits; in directional drilling of selected infill holes at Tobermalug and NWX; and in continued drilling at Knockroe. A more regional drilling programme continued to test targets north of Stonepark, in the area between Knockroe and Tobermalug and south, and to the east and west of Knockroe. A number of technical issues including cavities, mud or sand infills and thick overburden cover and, occasionally, dyke intersections prevented some holes reaching target depths.

The programme of perimeter drilling to test the extensions of the Tobermalug and NWX deposits has continued to provide encouraging results, some with economically significant intersections and rarely with barren holes, confirming the extensive nature of the mineralisation and the necessity to continue with a programme of step-out drilling around the periphery of all of the known lenses of mineralization.

The attached table contains the most significant recent result from the 2010 drilling, not previously released. Not all drill holes are reported.

Minco is of the opinion that the Tobermalug, NWX, Knockroe and Caherconlish South mineralised zones form part of the same Caherconlish Cluster. Widely spaced drill holes within the confines of the Caherconlish Cluster between Knockroe and the property boundary to the west have intersected good widths of low grade, breccia hosted zinc-lead mineralisation, demonstrating potential for the discovery of significant additions to the resource base.

New Geophysical Survey

TESLA - IMC International Limited has been contracted to complete about 22 line kilometres of 2D hammer seismic geophysical survey over the Caherconlish area commencing in early March. It is hoped that the survey data will assist with the identification of the southern boundary structure, the Ballyneaty Fault, with which higher grade and greater thicknesses of mineralisation might be associated. Drilling to explore the boundary fault has been postponed until completion of the geophysical survey.

Commenting on the exploration drilling at Pallas Green, Terence McKillen, Minco's Chief Executive, stated "The Joint Venture achieved a record 60,000 metres of drilling in 2010 which led to a doubling of the JORC compliant resource estimate for the Caherconlish area zinc deposits (reported August 5, 2010).

Lateral drilling around the periphery of the Tobermalug deposit continues to indicate both high-grade and low grade mineralization suggesting that the limits of the deposit have not yet been fully defined."

Nineteen drill rigs continue to operate on the Pallas Green property, including a drill which is evaluating the Devico and Navi-drilling systems for directional drilling of deeper holes.

"We look forward to the results of the new geophysical survey and to resumption of drilling to the south of Knockroe and Tobermalug, where we believe the important southern boundary fault is located which is expected to host higher grades and greater thicknesses of mineralisation, and to the west of Knockroe, between Knockroe and Stonepark, where we believe there is significant potential for the discovery of additional lenses of mineralisation." Mr. McKillen added.

NOTE: The above table contains the most significant recent results. Not all drill holes are reported. 

Qualified Person

Xstrata Zinc is the project operator for the Pallas Green Joint Venture Project and is responsible for both fieldwork and resource evaluation including, but not limited to, sampling, submittal of samples for assay, assay verification, metallurgical evaluation and QA/QC. Calculation of resources reported in this news release was conducted by Mr. Alan Huard, P.Geo. and Ms. Aline Côté, P.Geo., Qualified Persons, as defined in Canadian National Instrument 43‐101 "Standards for Disclosure for Mineral Projects "of the Canadian Securities Administrators and also Competent Persons as defined by the 2004 JORC Code.

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.

About Minco

Minco PLC is an AIM quoted precious and base metals exploration and development company

engaged in zinc-lead exploration on the Pallas Green property in Ireland in a joint venture with Xstrata Zinc and investments in zinc‐silver projects in Mexico through an equity holding in Xtierra Inc. listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (Toronto) under the symbol "XAG".