Have a look at this one for the future. It's a subsidiary of Oxus Gold which has been going great guns for the last nine months. Bill Trew has turned Oxus round since the beginning of February - asking price then 10.35, now 81 - and I bet he will do the same with Marakand. The asking price on Thursday should open at 20p, unless the MMs mess about with the price. For those of you not familiar with this opportunity I will post some more info later.

RNS Number:6398S
Oxus Gold PLC
28 November 2003


Oxus announces the flotation of Marakand Minerals Limited
Set to join AIM on 4th December 2003


The Directors of Oxus Gold Plc ("Oxus") are pleased to announce the flotation on
AIM of its 80% owned subsidiary, Marakand Minerals Limited ("Marakand"), by way
of an Introduction by Williams de Broe Plc. Admission to trading on AIM and
dealings are expected to commence on Thursday 4th December 2003. Further details
are set out in the Marakand Admission Document, published today.

Bill Trew, Chief Executive of Oxus, said today "The separate listing of Marakand
Minerals will promote the unlocking of real value of the very rich Khandiza
silver/zinc deposit. We will now be in a position to fast-track the development
of Khandiza; at the same time this development indicates the final step in Oxus'
restructuring into a low-risk focussed gold company in the lowest quartile of
the gold industry."

The announcement made today by Marakand is set out in full as follows:

"Marakand Minerals Limited ("Marakand" or the "Company") is set to join AIM by
way of an Introduction by Williams de Broe Plc. Admission to trading on AIM and
dealings are expected to commence on Thursday, 4th December 2003. Marakand
intends to develop the Khandiza polymetallic deposit, situated in southeast
Uzbekistan.

The Khandiza Deposit contains an audited resource above a 2% zinc cutoff of 13.0
Mt at an average grade of 8.3% zinc, 4.1% lead, 1.0% copper, 144 g/t silver and
0.34 g/t gold. Further base metal and precious metal exploration potential also
exists within a wider 5,300 km2 area in southeast Uzbekistan.

Marakand intends to complete a bankable feasibility study by the end of June
2004. Environmental baseline studies and preparation of an Environmental Impact
Assessment are intended to run concurrently with the bankable feasibility study.
Marakand then intends to commence the preliminary phase of mine development and
construction in Q4 2004 so as to be in production by the end of 2005.

Marakand is a subsidiary of Oxus Gold plc ("Oxus"). Admission of Marakand to
trading on AIM will allow the Khandiza operations to be financed and developed
separately to Oxus' gold assets on an accelerated basis whilst utilising the
technical skills and regional relationships within the Oxus Group.

In early October, Marakand raised #4 million before expenses through a private
placement of 20 million shares at 20p per share (plus 20 million attached
warrants exercisable at 40 pence per share). The net proceeds of the private
placement will be used to complete the bankable feasibility study on the
Khandiza Deposit and to finance pre-construction activities. Further funding
will be required for Marakand to commence construction of the mine and plant.

Speaking today, Alasdair Stuart, Chief Executive of Marakand, said, "I am
delighted with the forthcoming listing of Marakand on the Alternative Investment
Market and with the recent fund raising. We now look forward to focusing our
efforts on the preparation and completion of a bankable feasibility study for
the Khandiza Deposit and the subsequent construction at the mine and treatment
facilities."


For further information:

Oxus Gold plc Russell & Associates
Richard Wilkins London: Alex Buck
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7907 2000 Tel: +44 (0)7932 740452

Williams de Broe Plc Johannesburg: Marion Brower
Louis Castro / David Newton Tel: +27 (11) 880 3924 / +27 (0)82 895
0698
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7588 7511

Marakand Minerals Limited
Alasdair Stuart
Tel: +998 (71) 1206715 (Uzbekistan)


Additional information

Overview and History of the Khandiza Deposit

The Khandiza Deposit is a volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit that contains
zinc, lead and copper sulphides and associated silver and gold, although in
revenue terms the deposit is essentially zinc-silver-lead-copper-gold.

The Khandiza Deposit is located in the Sariasia region of southeast Uzbekistan,
in Surkhandarya Province, and is 50 kilometres from the regional towns of
Sariasia and Denau. Access to the deposit is by road from Termez, a distance of
some 220 kilometres, or from Samarkand, a distance of some 480 kilometres. From
Sariasia, and the Surkhandarya valley, the road follows the Sangardak River
valley and then up the Khandiza River valley.

The latest audited resource estimates of the Khandiza Deposit were carried out
in April 2001 and are as follows:

April 2001 resource estimates at 2% and 5% zinc cutoffs


Cut-off Resource Tonnes Zinc Copper Lead Silver Gold
Zn Eq % Class Millions % % % g/t g/t

2.00 Measured 4.19 9.15 1.10 3.82 130 0.35
2.00 Indicated 8.79 7.88 0.95 4.15 151 0.34
TOTAL 12.97 8.29 1.00 4.05 144 0.34
5.00 Measured 2.39 14.13 1.71 5.87 216 0.54
5.00 Indicated 4.46 13.89 1.67 7.10 261 0.57
TOTAL 6.85 13.97 1.68 6.67 245 0.56


Contained metal at 2% and 5% zinc cutoffs

Cut-off Resource Zinc Copper Lead Silver Gold
Zn Eq % Class 000 t 000 t 000 t M oz Oz

2.00 Measured 383 46 160 17.45 47,519
2.00 Indicated 692 83 365 42.73 94,941
TOTAL 1,075 129 525 60.18 142,460
5.00 Measured 337 41 140 16.61 41,378
5.00 Indicated 620 74 317 37.44 81,534
TOTAL 957 115 457 54.05 122,912

At the end of 2002, Oxus further investigated the geological interpretation,
again using traditional cross sectional and irregular blocking methods, and
revised upward its internal resource estimate. Although this resource estimate
has yet to be audited, WAI have discussed the reinterpretation and re-evaluation
process with Oxus, and believe it is reasonable that an increase in tonnage and
grade would be expected. Thus, with this revised geological model, WAI has
recommended the instigation of a Datamine(R) computer software resource evaluation
as a basis for commencing a detailed mine design to full bankable feasibility
study level. This work commenced at the start of November 2003.

Directors of the Company

The Board comprises two executive and two non-executive Directors, whose brief
biographies are included below. It is the intention of the Board to select an
independent non-executive director as soon as practicable following admission to
AIM.

William J Trew, BEng (Mech) Hon, MEng (Non-executive Chairman) (aged 45)

Bill Trew, graduated from the University of Wales in 1979. Since then he has
gained over 25 years' experience in the mining and engineering industry in
positions as both a project manager and senior engineer in some of the world's
most significant gold mining companies including Gold Fields and Durban Deep. In
1986 he founded MAED Limited, a specialist project management and engineering
design company specialising in the gold mining industry. He is a registered
professional engineer with the Engineering Council of South Africa. He was
appointed Chief Executive Officer of Oxus in November 2002. He still retains his
position as non-executive chairman of the MAED group of companies. He joined
Marakand in October 2003.

Alasdair C J Stuart (Chief Executive Officer) (aged 37)

Alasdair Stuart holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of
Cape Town (1989). In 1995 he completed, with distinction, the Management
Advancement Program at the University of the Witswatersrand's Business School.
For seven years Alasdair worked for The South African Breweries on capital
expansion projects. He joined MAED Limited in 1996 and as a shareholder and
director has been involved in metallurgical processing plant design and
construction projects in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mali, Senegal and more recently
Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Recently he has been the General Manager for MAED
Limited's international operations with specific responsibilities for logistics
in the former Soviet Union for the Amantaytau Oxide Project and he has been
based in Tashkent since early 2002. He joined Marakand in October 2003.

William J Charter BSc; CGeol, FGS, CEng, MIMM (Executive Technical Director)
(aged 48)

Bill Charter is a geologist and has over 26 years' experience in project
management and mineral resource evaluation, and in the design and supervision of
feasibility studies, exploration programmes, drilling contracts and ground
investigations. Having gained experience as an exploration geologist and then as
a mine geologist with Anglo American Corporation (in Fiji and South Africa), he
subsequently worked in minerals and geological consultancy before joining Oxus
in 1996. As Vice President, Geology & Exploration for Oxus, he has worked
throughout Central Asia, and has managed the Khandiza project on behalf of the
company. He joined Marakand in October 2003.

Richard B Shead, BA, CIS (SA) (Non-executive Director) (aged 50)

Richard Shead was Chief Executive Officer of East Daggafontein Mines Limited
between 1997 and 2002 and played a leading role in the reverse flotation and
acquisition by the company of Mvelaphanda Resources Limited, one of South
Africa's premier empowerment companies in the mining sector, in February 2002.
The combined company has been rated by the South African Sunday Times as South
Africa's top performing company for the past three consecutive years. Previously
Richard was Managing Director of Southern Prospecting Limited, a South African
mineral exploration company that has developed gold and other mineral ventures
in South Africa, Botswana and Canada. He has also worked with two South African
listed companies, Lydenburg Exploration Limited as Managing Director and
Benguela Concessions Limited as Chief Executive Officer. He is currently an
Executive Director of Oxus, responsible for corporate development. He joined
Marakand in October 2003."


This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END
MSCBUBDBBBDGGXI

Given Oxus's stellar performance and the likelihood that the company might gain a small cult following I had a close look at it and thanks for highlighting it Scottie, but afraid I prefer gold producer Yamana (AIM:YAU) which is in South America, is in production and has made some very modest estimates about its own future (which still suggest it is substantially undervalued) www.yamana.com, also listed in US and Toronto btw, whereas Marakand seems much more speculative and in a less stable area of the world.

Yup I fully agree with that harwick and lets not forget Marakand wont come on tap until late 2005 at the earliest. Better to be in the producers at this point in time and then take a look at the explorers further down the line.

cheers GF.

I have Oxus Gold already. I heard that there may be a 1 share for every 10 shares in Oxus Gold. Is this true? It would be nice to get some shares although there won't be that many as i have a modest amount in oxus.

Scotinvestor,

Yes they will issue you FREE one Marakand share for every 10 that you currently hold in Oxus.

This is equivalent to a special dividend, of approximately 3-4%.

normally the value of Oxus, would decline after such a move, as they have lost the value of the assets, ie Khandiza, but as they were never fully accounted for in the balance sheet, IMHO, I'm hopeful that won't happen this time.

And of course Oxus are retaining 60% of Marakand shares, so if Marakand increases in value, this will increase the assets held by Oxus, and hopefully he shareprice!

This looks like a win win situation all round.

A private placement of 20 million shares at 20p per share in Marakand, plus 20 million attached warrants exerciseable at 40p per share, has already raised 4 million pounds, so I would assess that the company has already gained quite a large cult -and not a small one as Hawick suggests. Also I think the argument about not being in a stable area of the world is an old one, and is no longer valid. I'm not at all sure about Yamana, if I was looking to add another gold share to my portfolio right now YAU wouldn't be in the top six of possible candidates.

Yamana's pullback after a good recent run makes it really attractive even on modest gold price estimates. Unfortunately saw a report on Bloomberg suggesting conditions where Marakand are to operate are getting worse politically, not better. Too guessy for me, no production for two years, no profits for another year or two thereafter, marakand too much of a stab in the dark, won't be bothering for a long term investment.
May get some speculative interest to start with might even be tempted for, say a week or two as could even be a good short term trading play, especially if it has as you say a big cult, but once any excitement has gone going to be a long slog for shareholders waiting for the quarterly progress reports, year after year. Been in mining exploration stocks too often, know the frustrating problems that are usually encountered along the way. No real reason to think this will be any different. Wonder why Oxus floating it off too........

Hawick,

Nice subtle deramp!

I don't think there is any worsening of the political situation at all, and S. America could just as easily be considered to be worsening too, IMHO.

Marakand is being floated so that Oxus can concentrate on being a gold producer.

Bill Trew and his team have gained considerable respect in the way they have turned Oxus around, so there's no reason to suspect they will fail to deliver, as they have met their objectives so far.

Next landmark is the gold pour, due on Xmas day!

Let's judge them when we see if they achieve it!

I think they will.

As I've said on the Yamana thread hawick, one of the problems with holding shares which are also dealt on other markets is that you are at the mercy of the other markets. I think Yamana have gone down about 11p since they started trading over here.
You're entitled to your opinion on Marakand - and time will tell. I've read comtless comments by posters on other bulletin boards saying " I wish I had bought into Oxus when it was valued at 10p ". The way Bill Trew operates Marakand could well become another Oxus. - I've tried to find the Bloomberg report and couldn't find it - was it a recent one?

Not a deramp. If I could be accused of anything probably the reverse if I am interested in short term trading. Don't think anyone will take a blind bit of notice what I say anyway! Good luck with it though, will watch the opening day or two to see if I think any trading opportunity. Do you know the ticker?

I think it's MKD

Cheersas i say scottie good luck. (No probs with others doing well!!! hope you do), will watch it closely!

Flying already, ask price now 30p.

Ah but did you get up in time! Clearly got some day trader interest, as i thought, on other boards. I'd cash in fast if you did, and buy back when things settle Scottie. Happy profiteering.

Scottie,

MKD price has risen, now 36.5p mid!

Hi Hawick,

Thanks again for SVR tip. I'm not sure MKD price will drop, to be honest! I um'd & ah'd about buying first thing, hit the cancel button for my online trade (at 26p!!!) & have been regretting it ever since. A quick run round the BB's suggests there are many people like me, just waiting to grab these shares on a pullback.... No-one could've expected it to go up so quickly and, given that OXS own 80% of the shares in MKD and the MMs were only given 2 million (so I've heard), what motive have the MMs got to bring the price down. They don't have enough stock to cope with the private investors demand IMO. OXS won't be trading in and out, so who's gonna sell!?

Now up to 36/39 as I type!

SB

Dont forget though SB nothing comes on tap until December 2005 at the earliest.

This one is a speculators dream but I would be watching very carefully over the next 2 days. Hawick is correct, cash in on any weakness as it is obvious short term merchants are aboard and they will leave when they have made their cut.

cheers GF.

I think we'll see a sell off when the share dividend is given out to the OXS shareholders. Until then, I can't see it going below 30p bid. I will not be buying at these levels, however, thanks for the sound advice GF!

SB

when was the cut-off date to buy into oxus gold shares so as to qualify for marakand shares? does anyone know? i bought into oxus last week.

thanks

Thanks Scottie for this tip, boy am I kicking myself now, wished I had got my lazy ass out of bed this morning!!

Scotinvestor,

No it has not been decided, but will not be before January 2004.

I spoke to the company yesterday, and there has to be an EGM first, and that there has to be a 21 day advance notice of this, so realistically, that leads us into January now.

If permission is given at the EGM, (and that seems likely, IMHO!) they then have to attend court for a final ok, so mid January looks the earliest this is likely to happen.

Well, I've got my free MKD shares with IG Index too, but HERE'S the interesting thing....

I can sell them now and I can SHORT MKD if I want to!!!!!!!!!

Could create some downward pressure sooner than anticipated!!!!

I'm sure there are short term investors on board this one - but more importantly there are serious long term investors on board who have seen what has happened to the Oxus share price over the last twelve months.

Share Bear,

I agree, not much chance of a sell off of either share until the shares are handed out, and probably not too much then either.

And even then, if Oxus have completed the first gold pour on schedule, why would people sell, when this looks a decent investment in it's own right?

I think Marakand will be a hold whilst Oxus continue to fulfill their promises, and they have so far.

Bill Trew has impressed the city with the turnaround of Oxus, I'm sure he's just as anxious to make that same impression with Marakand.

I am not selling mine, MKD are a long term hold, IMHO.

Personally I think any Oxus share holder who now shorts MKD should have their head examined. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!! I agree with your comments Andy.

Looks like a lot of games with this one! Tke profits and buy yamana. Nice RNS today "transformation" of company and expecting further cost savings to improve margins in Brazil second half.

hawick I respectfully suggest if you want to keep plugging yamana - that you do it on the yamana thread! It's beginning to sound a bit monotonous on this thread.

Touchez!

Scottie,

Yes I come here to discuss Marakand too, not other shares.

I can't believe anyone that holders will short Marakand, and the price is still rising!

With such limited stock in circulation, MKD looks a reasonable bet, IMHO.

The confusion regarding the MKD share allocation to Oxus shareholders has been cleared up now - anyone buying Oxus shares today will be entitled to 1 share in MKD for every 10 of Oxus.

Scottie,

Yes, and they will until the qualifying date, which will be in 2004, imho!

I think IG Index have jumped the gun by alloting them today, as we certainly do not own them yet, because there hasn't been an EGM to approve the scheme!

And then they have to get court apporval.

My guess is allocation day will be just before court approval.

Up another 5p so far today. What do the chart experts make of this one?!!

Scottie,

On only 2 days price action, they can't!

I suppose you could say they are in an uptrend?

Gents,

A nice rise again today!

I'm not sure the market has got their heads round the value of Marakand to the Oxus balance sheet yet.

Gold $406 tonight, so looking forward to a decent monday for MKD and OXS.

I don't think anyone has got their heads round how the Marakand price has taken off. I was sitting back on Thursday thinking there would an initial burst of buying and then the price would settle back down to around 25p - wrong!

Seems like it's only going to get better!

Feature Story



Date : December 8, 2003



Marakand Minerals Shows London’s AIM Market A Clean Pair Of Heels.

The shares of Marakand Minerals, which is a split-off from Oxus Gold, hit the ground running when they listed on AIM on Friday and proved that one plus one can equal more than two. The company had raised 4 million before expenses at 20 p per share back in October through Williams de Broe who are brokers and nominated advisers. Warrants were attached which are exercisable when the shares reach 40p each and these are also now listed on AIM. At the beginning of last week Oxus shares were just over 80p each where the market capitalisation was 160 million. Ex-Marakand they advanced further to 187p, which is highly unusual after splitting off a significant asset, and Marakand shares doubled to 41p which put the warrants in-the-money from day one. The two companies are now capitalised at around 200 million which confirms that the exercise generated real value for shareholders to whom Oxus is going to distribute part of its holding in Marakand.

The success of this listing raises more than one question, but the main one is whether the price for the Marakand shares was pitched correctly. It might be argued that the shares could have been placed at 30p each, but hindsight is a great advantage. What it does do is point the finger at Collins Stewart’s listing of Trans-Siberian Gold a week earlier .The placing price for this one was 150p per share. When the brokers found they could raise more than the required 10 million they went for 16 million. The trouble was that they had used up all their ammunition in the secondary market and the shares are now languishing at a discount at 135p. It is amazing how long it takes to get a company’s shares on the move again if they have a disappointing debut.

The funds raised by Marakand will be used to complete a bankable feasibility study on the rich silver/zinc Khandiza deposit in Uzbekistan and finance pre-construction activities. This project was described to Minews by Bill Trew, the chief executive of Oxus Gold, at an interview back in June as being the jewel in the crown at Oxus. So far he seems to have found a lot of jewellery as Oxus shares have put up a remarkable performance since he and his team from MAED came aboard just over a year ago. This team has had plenty of experience of bringing gold projects in difficult parts of Africa into production ahead of schedule and below budget and have carried out a similar achievement at Oxus’s Amantaytau gold mine which is also in Uzbekistan.

Alasdair Stuart, who is chief executive of Marakand, was not hanging round London to congratulate himself. He answered his mobile from Uzbekistan and does not expect to be be back here until the end of January. As he pointed out he has plenty of work to do as the mine will be underground and the metallurgy is quite complicated. The Khandiza deposit is a volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit that contains zinc, lead and copper sulphides and associated silver and gold, although in revenue terms the deposit is essentially zinc-silver-lead-copper-gold. It is located in the Sariasia region of southeast Uzbekistan and is 50 kilometres from the regional towns of Sariasia and Denau..

The Khandiza deposit contains an audited resource above a 2% zinc cutoff of 13.0 million tonnes at an average grade of 8.3% zinc, 4.1% lead, 1.0% copper, 144 g/t silver and 0.34 g/t gold. At the end of 2002, Oxus further investigated the geological interpretation, again using traditional cross sectional and irregular blocking methods, and revised upward its internal resource estimate. Although this resource estimate has yet to be audited, WAI have discussed the reinterpretation and re-evaluation process with Oxus, and believe it is reasonable that an increase in tonnage and grade would be expected. Thus, with this revised geological model, WAI has recommended the instigation of a Datamine computer software resource evaluation as a basis for commencing a detailed mine design to full bankable feasibility study level. This work commenced at the beginning of November.

The current plan is to pre-concentrate the milled ore by dense media separation and metallurgical testwork indicates that 82.6 per cent of the zinc should be recovered to the zinc concentrate, 84.9 per cent of the lead to the lead concentrate and 82.6 per cent of the copper to the copper concentrate while 50 per cent of the silver reports to the lead concentrate and 33.8 per cent to the copper concentrate. The concentrates will then be transported to the Almalyk smelter which is near Tashkent if the price is right. The Government of Uzbekistan hopes so as it would prolong the life of the smelter. Based on the work done to date it is expected that the project will produce over 110,000 tonnes of zinc concentrate , 50,000 tonnes of lead concentrate and more than 25,000 tonnes of copper concentrate a year. A jewel indeed.


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Scottie,

Well Marakand have held reasonably steady so far, but of course there is limited liquidity, and some recipients of the free share distribution are bound to cash in straight away, so once it has settled down, i'm planning ot buy a few more.

With the free allocation, adding in some future pruchases will still give me a very low average price, and I am confident in the ability of management to deliver.

Yes, like you just waiting for the right opportunity to buy some to add to my divvi !