Central Asia Metals plc is pleased to announce an operational update on the Company's Kounrad Copper Project in Kazakhstan and an increase of its ownership of the Project to 100% conditional upon documentation.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Construction of the Project plant is materially complete with capital expenditure below budget
• Commissioning of the Solvent Extraction-Electro Winning ("SX-EW") plant commences at the end of February 2012
• First copper production expected April 2012 with production for the year scheduled to be approximately 5,000 tonnes of copper cathode
• SaryArka Social Entrepreneurial Corporation National Company JSC ("SaryArka") has conducted a tender process for the sale of its 40% ownership of the Project and JSC Central Asian Investments Consulting Company ("CAICC"), a 100% subsidiary of JSC SAT & Company (together with CAICC the "SAT Group"), won the tender
• CAML has an agreement with the SAT Group to subsequently acquire the 40% ownership of the Project in exchange for 8,616,593 CAML shares which equates to 9.1% of the enlarged share capital on completion of the transaction

Nick Clarke, Chief Executive Officer commented:

"There has been extremely encouraging progress at Kounrad over the last quarter.  The ability to achieve material completion of the Project under budget and broadly in line with our initial schedule is a testament to our staff and partners in Kazakhstan.  We remain confident that we will achieve our goal of commercial copper cathode production at Kounrad in April 2012 without additional funding.

Additionally we are delighted that the SAT Group will become a major shareholder in the Company and that the Company will gain 100% control of Kounrad."

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