Re Joint Venture

Celtic Resources Holdings PLC
31 January 2007




FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          31 January 2007

                          Celtic Resources Holdings Plc
                          ("Celtic" or "the Company")
                                        
      Joint Venture Agreement for the Development of the Miheevskoye Copper
                           and Gold Project in Russia


The Directors of Celtic are pleased to announce that the Company has entered
into a joint venture agreement to develop the Miheevskoye copper and gold
deposit in Russia, one of the assets of Eureka Mining Plc which was acquired by
Celtic in December 2006.


Highlights

   •50/50 joint venture (JV) with Anime Global Limited ("AGL").

   •AGL's contribution to the joint venture valued at US$16m including US$10m
    in cash.

   •All compliance, licensing and technical work including confirmatory
    drilling for a bankable feasibility study to be carried out by Polymetal
    Engineering a company owned by Polymetal, Russia's largest silver producer
    and third largest gold producer.

   •Russian knowledge and expertise will be brought to the JV which aims at
    completion of the bankable feasibility study by year end and first copper
    production from oxide ores in 2008.


The JV will start immediately and develop an overall project plan which has
three key objectives:

   • Complete a bankable standard feasibility study on the deposit, including
     all local permits, approvals and licenses by the end of 2007

   • Define a fast track process that enables early copper production from
     treatment of oxide ores using the heap leaching and solvent extraction -
     electro winning (SX-EW) process

   • Define the optimum mine and process plant size for initial production of
     concentrates from sulphide ores and future expansion plans

The joint venture is structured as a part cash contribution and performance
based earn-in steps, which will be fully funded by AGL. Both the cash and
earn-in steps are based on the successful completion of each phase. Following
the final phase, AGL will own a 50% interest in the resource. The total amount
of cash and earn-in shares will be approximately $16m.

Polymetal Engineering, a fully owned subsidiary of Polymetal, has been
contracted to execute the plans of the JV, including obtaining revised license
conditions, submission of the Approved Permanent Conditions Report to the
Russian State Committee for Mineral Resources ("GKZ"), preparation of a
definitive bankable feasibility study for the construction of a heap leach
facility ("Proekt") with full government approval in accordance with Russian
state standards and a bankable feasibility study with all the necessary
approvals to construct a flotation plant.


Chelyabinsk - Miheevskoye Copper Gold Project

This project is a large copper-gold/porphyry deposit located at Miheevskoye some
250 km from Chelyabinsk, within the Chelyabinsk Oblast of Southern Russia. A
pre-feasibility study ("PFS") was completed in July 2006 which provided a total
Indicated Resource to JORC standards of 373.5 million tonnes averaging 0.38 per
cent copper and 0.10 grams per tonne of gold, containing 1.42 million tonnes of
copper and 1.20 million ounces of gold. In addition, there is an Inferred
Resource of 52.1 million tonnes containing 0.31 per cent copper and 0.07 grams
per tonne of gold.


Polymetal

Polymetal, which is wholly owned by Nafta Moscow, has 4 producing mines, 3
development projects and 10 exploration projects and has more than 4,000
employees. In 2005, Polymetal was the world's fifth largest silver producer and
the number one global primary silver producer, with more than 18 million ounces
of silver produced.


Polymetal Engineering has extensive experience in all aspects of the mining
process including compliance, licensing, design, engineering, metallurgy,
geology, construction, processing and economic evaluation. Polymetal Engineering
has completed a range of projects for third party metals and mining companies,
in addition to projects completed for the Polymetal Group.

Commenting on the JV, Kevin Foo, Managing Director of Celtic Resources said, "We
are delighted to have the support of Polymetal Engineering in this JV. We look
forward to actively developing the project and meeting the objectives of early
production and a bankable feasibility study by year end."

Valery Tsyplakov, head of Polymetal Engineering, stated, "We are pleased to be
working with Celtic Resources on this exciting project. We believe that we will
be able to contribute significant value to this project."


For further information please contact:

Kevin Foo / Jonathan Scott-Barrett                 Laurence Read
Celtic Resources Holdings Plc                      Conduit PR
Tel: + 44 (0)20 7921 8800                          Tel: [phone]
[e-mail]                      [e-mail]





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