Holding(s) in Company

TR-1: NOTIFICATION OF MAJOR INTEREST IN SHARES

1. Identity of the issuer or the underlying issuer of existing shares to which voting rights are attached:

Avocet Mining Plc 

2 Reason for the notification (please tick the appropriate box or boxes):

An acquisition or disposal of voting rights

An acquisition or disposal of qualifying financial instruments which may result in the acquisition of shares already issued to which voting rights are attached

X

An acquisition or disposal of instruments with similar economic effect to qualifying financial instruments

X

An event changing the breakdown of voting rights

Other (please specify):

3. Full name of person(s) subject to the notification obligation:

BlackRock Inc

4. Full name of shareholder(s) (if different from 3.):

n/a

5. Date of the transaction and date on which the threshold is crossed or reached:

25th January 2011

6. Date on which issuer notified:

26th January 2011

7. Threshold(s) that is/are crossed or reached:

Holding has gone above 10%

8. Notified details:

A: Voting rights attached to shares

Class/type ofshares

if possible usingthe ISIN CODE

Situation previousto the triggeringtransaction

Resulting situation after the triggering transaction

NumberofShares

NumberofVotingRights

Numberof shares

Number of votingrights

% of voting rights

Direct

Direct

Indirect

Direct

Indirect

GB0000663038

10,201,509

10,201,509

N/A

N/A

14,652,051

N/A

7.42%

B: Qualifying Financial Instruments

Resulting situation after the triggering transaction

Type of financialinstrument

Expirationdate

Exercise/ConversionPeriod

Number of votingrights that may beacquired if theinstrument isexercised/ converted.

% of votingrights

N/A

N/A

N /A

N/A

N/A

C: Financial Instruments with similar economic effect to Qualifying Financial Instruments

Resulting situation after the triggering transaction

Type of financialinstrument

Exerciseprice

Expirationdate

Exercise/Conversionperiod

Number of votingrights instrumentrefers to

% of voting rights

CFD

N/A

N/A

N/A

5,148,351

Nominal

Delta

2.61%

2.61%

Total (A+B+C)

Number of voting rights

Percentage of voting rights

19,800,402

10.02%

9. Chain of controlled undertakings through which the voting rights and/or thefinancial instruments are effectively held, if applicable:

 BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited - 19,800,402 (10.02%)

Proxy Voting:

10. Name of the proxy holder:

n/a

11. Number of voting rights proxy holder will cease to hold:

n/a

12. Date on which proxy holder will cease to hold voting rights:

n/a

13. Additional information:

BlackRock International Threshold

Reporting Team

14. Contact name:

Andrew Manchester

15. Contact telephone number:

020 7743 5773

andrew.manchester@blackrock.com