MINCO  Plc

26 Farringdon Street

London

EC4A 4AB

31 January 2005

Interim Report for the Six months from 1^st May to 31^st October 2004

Minco Plc, the international precious metals development and exploration company is pleased to announce its interim, unaudited, results for the six months ended 31 October 2004.

Highlights

·         Significant progress towards precious metals production

·         Raised £4.5m in November 2004, the majority from institutional investors

·         Drilling programme and feasibility study concluded on Laguna silver tailings project, showing 2.35 million ounces of silver production a year at an operating cost of US$2.28 per ounce (current silver price US$6.50 to US$7.00 per ounce) for an initial 8 year period.

·         Finalising the award of a bankable feasibility study on Laguna project with a view to reaching a production decision in the second half of 2005.

·         Secured a 50% stake in potential world class silver, gold and copper property in Mexico, Minera Sisa (subject to completion), which has a small fully equipped underground mine and process plant requiring refurbishment, together with substantial potential inferred silver, gold and copper resources.

·         Ongoing evaluations of precious metal projects in Mexico and elsewhere with near term production or advanced exploration to add to the excellent existing project portfolio.

Minco Strategy

Your Company’s strategy is to develop world class resources and to generate early cash flow through low cost per ounce silver and gold production. The evaluation of new opportunities with the view to acquisition and management is an integral part of the strategy to accelerating these objectives.

Our strategic focus on silver and gold projects has been validated by the rise in these metal prices over the last 18 months, with silver prices of over US$6.00 per ounce and gold of over US$400 per ounce. Our new project, Minera Sisa, with its near term production capability, will help add to our silver and gold portfolio whilst adding copper - another metal with an exciting price rise over the last  18 months – to our metals portfolio.

Going into 2005 we are well funded with an exciting portfolio of Mexican silver, gold and copper assets and we believe our ability to achieve our objectives has been significantly enhanced over the past six months.

Operating Activities

Laguna - Mexico

Following completion of the feasibility report in October 2004 on the Laguna silver tailings project, which shows a very attractive return on investment, we are finalising the award of the bankable study contract. This contract should be completed during the second half of 2005 and will allow us to make a production decision and secure project finance to construct the production facilities. Initial discussions with banks to supply project finance for construction have been positive.

The feasibility study, which included a 216 drillhole programme, reports that the project will produce 2.35 million ounces of silver a year at an operating cost of $2.28 an ounce of silver over an 8 year project life. This should generate US$10 million a year in operating profit from an initial capital requirement of US$ 20 million. These figures may be enhanced if the tailings on the surrounding dry land are also included.

Minera Sisa - Mexico

As this interim statement was being finalised, Minco secured a 50% share in Minera Sisa in the Sierra Madre gold and silver belt in Durango, Mexico, a region which has seen historical production of 40 million ounces of gold and over a billion ounces of silver. A small family owned underground mine has been working intermittently on the property since 1967. The mine includes 17 levels from a 220 metre deep shaft and is equipped with a 100 ton a day process plant, trackless mining equipment and support buildings. An independent study in 2002 indicated a resource potential of 10 million tonnes at average grades of 480 grammes per tonne silver and 4.2 grammes per tonne gold together with copper credits, in total equivalent to over 12 grammes per tonne gold. These resources have not been classified to JORC standards, and may change when classified to these standards.

Our technical personnel are now working on programmes to meet three immediate objectives:

·        To qualify the resources as soon as practicable

·        A regional exploration programme looking for major open pit deposits

·         Studies for the rehabilitation and expansion of the underground mine.

We believe that this project is potentially well ahead of anything else we have seen in Mexico or Russia and have committed an initial US$2 million towards its initial development in addition to acquisition costs of US$2.4 million. The agreement includes Minco acquiring Board control and provisions for increasing the shareholding in the event that one shareholder is unable to meet any future funding requirement in advance of the initial US$2 million. The contract is conditional, inter alia, upon the transfer of certain properties from our new co-shareholders into Minera Sisa.

Russia and Ireland

In Russia we are finalising plans for our Vodorazdelnoye project, however over the past months management has needed to focus on the Minera Sisa acquisition resulting in the development of our Russian property - and our Zacatecas exploration properties - being delayed. In Ireland, drilling continued with our joint venture partner Noranda at Pallas Green, and they have proposed a significant drilling programme in 2005. Drilling results demonstrated an increase to the already known mineralised zone. Recent increases in zinc and other base metal prices make us hopeful that demands for zinc will stimulate renewed interest in this and our other base metals projects.   

Corporate

We have changed the year end to 31 December so as to align the Company's accounting reference date with certain of its subsidiary companies which own and operate the majority of the Company's operations and which are registered in countries where the statutory accounting reference date is 31 December.  This means that we will be producing financial statements for the eight months from 1st May to 31 December 2004 which will be sent to shareholders by 30 June 2005.

Outlook

The bankable study on Laguna will be completed during the second half of 2005 and the initial discussions with banks to provide project finance for construction are positive. Elsewhere in Mexico, our new 50% owned Minera Sisa project will become the focus of a good deal of our activity. In Russia, we are finalising plans for Vodorazdelnoye and in Ireland steady progress is being made on our base metal projects.

The outlook for the Company is very positive with a management, focussed on the creation of shareholder value, continuing to pursue its strategy. Minco is now built on the solid foundations of an excellent portfolio of projects and is well funded to continue development of the projects.

Roger W. Turner

Chairman.

28  January 2005

6,586

Notes:

1              No dividend is proposed in respect of the period.

2              The results for the period are all derived from continuing activities (2003 – includes a €4,000

                 operating loss for the period 10th – 31st October 2003 for Orca Group acquired in October 2003)

3              The calculations of loss per share have been based on the retained loss after taxation for the period

                and on a weighted average of 94,975,287 ordinary shares in issue during the period.

4              The unaudited results have been prepared on a going concern basis and on the basis of the

                accounting policies which will be adopted in the audited accounts for the eight month period 

                ending 31 December 2004.

5              The interim report is unaudited and does not constitute Statutory Accounts as defined in S.148 of 

               the Companies Act 1963.  A copy of the Group's 2004 Statutory Accounts has been filed with the

              Companies Registration Office.  The auditors' opinion on these Statutory Accounts was unqualified.

6              The Interim Report for the six months to 30 October 2004 was approved by the Directors on 28 

                January 2005.