Acquisition

Vane Holdings PLC
31 August 2004


                               VANE Holdings plc

                   Option over Mina Charay Prospect in Mexico

VANE Holdings Plc ('VANE') has entered into an option agreement with Minera
PAFEX, S.A. de C.V. to acquire the Mina Charay gold and silver prospect in the
State of Sinaloa in western Mexico.

The prospect, which contains known gold and silver mineralization, including the
Mina del Padre and other veins, is located in the long established San Blas
Mining District, in a part of the Rio Fuerte Valley known as 'The Buried Peaks'
which represent the westernmost bedrock exposures of the Sierra Nevada
Occidental Mountain range.

VANE has planned a drilling and sampling programme on the prospect to take place
throughout October and November 2004 and expect to announce the results of this
programme early in the new year. The Directors of VANE are very encouraged by
early sampling results from the site which indicate significant grades of gold
and silver.

The option agreement provides for payments of US$5,000 per month up to December
2004 and further incremental staged payments as follows:

Date                                         US Dollars
October 2004                                                           $35,000
June 2005                                                              $75,000
December 2005                                                         $150,000
June 2006                                                             $300,000
December 2006                                                         $410,000
January 2007                                                        $2,000,000*

* Of which US$1,000,000 will be in VANE ordinary shares. Following the final
payment of US$2,000,000 VANE will own the prospect outright.

The option agreement can be terminated at any time by VANE should they not wish
to proceed with the acquisition and no further monthly or staged payments would
be payable.

The geology of the Mina Charay region and of the prospect itself is
characterised by a thick section of volcanics of Tertiary age. Mina Charay
occurs at the south west foot of Cerro Del Mina, a conical hill composed of
north west dipping andesites. The southern flank of this hill is cut by a steep
fault zone believed to be the same structure that controls mineralization at
Mina Charay particularly that of the strongly mineralized 'Veta de la Mina del
Padre'. That fault extends into a zone of brecciated andesites and rhyolites
which are intensely silicified, fractured and cut by a stockwork of quartz
veinlets with concentrations of gold and silver as well as geochemically
anomalous values of lead, zinc, molybdenum and mercury. Other veins, known to
occur in the immediate area, some parallel with the Mina del Padre (Charay)
vein, have not yet been explored

The Drilling programme at the Company's Diablito property in the State of
Nayarit, Mexico, has now been undertaken and is progressing well. The Company
expects to release the results from this imminently as timetabled in its AIM
prospectus.

Enquiries:

VANE Holdings plc 020 7667 6322
Matthew Idiens

Seymour Pierce Limited 020 7107 8000
Jonathan Guy

Parkgreen Communications 020 7493 3713
Justine Howarth / Cathy Malins






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