Madagascar Licence Awarded

Aminex PLC
18 October 2005


18 OCTOBER 2005

                                   AMINEX PLC
                                                                                
                            MADAGASCAR LICENCE AWARD

Aminex PLC ("Aminex"), the oil and gas company listed in London and Dublin
announces the award of onshore exploration acreage in Madagascar.

Aminex, with partner Mocoh Resources Ltd.("Mocoh"), has been awarded the rights
to Block 3108, known as Manja, onshore the west coast of Madagascar and covering
an area of 10,725 square kilometres, (approximately 2.6 million acres). The
rights to this block are held through a Production Sharing Agreement ("PSA")
between OMNIS, the Madagascar state oil and mining organisation and Amicoh
Resources Limited ("Amicoh"), a newly formed company, in which Aminex and Mocoh
each holds an equal number of shares and through which the shareholders will
fund exploration activity in equal proportions. Mocoh is an active downstream
African petroleum group with existing assets and distribution operations in a
number of countries including Madagascar.

Several wells have been drilled in the past on Manja, some of which found
significant shows of oil and gas without benefit of modern seismic and other
exploration tools available today. The geology is analogous to the East Coast of
Tanzania where Aminex is already a well-established explorer. A number of
international oil and gas companies have become active in Madagascar recently,
including Exxon-Mobil, Norsk-Hydro, Vanco, Sterling Energy, Vuna Resources and
Sun-Pec.

The Manja PSA calls for seismic in an initial two-year period followed by
exploration drilling in subsequent periods. The effective date of the PSA will
commence upon signing of a Presidential decree, estimated to take place in 30 to
45 days time.

Commenting on the award, Aminex Chief Executive Brian Hall said: "We are very
pleased to have secured the exploration rights to this interesting block and to
be participating in Madagascar's fast growing exploration effort. This is our
first joint project with Mocoh since a recent agreement for co-operation in
African exploration ventures."

Further info:

Brian Hall Chief Executive, Aminex
[phone]

Archie Berens, ICIS
[phone] or [phone]




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