Placing of New Shares

Celtic Resources Holdings PLC 26 March 2002 For Immediate release 26 March 2002 Celtic Resources Holdings Plc Celtic Resources Announces a Conditional Placing Raising £3.86m (US$5.5m) Celtic Resources Holdings Plc (CER), quoted on the ESM of the Irish Stock Exchange, today announced the arrangement of a conditional placing raising £3.86m (US$5.5m) before expenses through the issue of approximately 28.6 million new Ordinary Shares at 13.5p each ("the Placing Shares"). Brokers Hoodless Brennan and Partners assisted in the placing which was strongly supported by key institutions and private client brokers. Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Kevin Foo said: "The placing, including some 9.3 million shares to leading institution Gartmore Investment Management Plc, demonstrates the growing interest in our company from institutional investors. The proceeds of the placing will largely be used to accelerate development of the Nezhdaninskoye project in anticipation of the successful closing of US$13.5 million project finance by Standard Bank." Celtic, which aims to become one of the largest gold producers in Russia and Kazakhstan within the next 5 years, poured first gold from its recently commissioned cyanide leach plant at its 50% owned Nezhdaninskoye gold mine in Russia, which contains 27 million ounces of gold. The Russian Government recently introduced significant initiatives to develop the country's vast resources industry including reductions in the corporate tax rate from 30% to 24%, elimination of the 5% gold export tax and an offer by the Russian Central Bank to purchase gold at only a 0.5% discount to the London Fix, compared to a previous 5.5% discount. Gold can now be sold in Russia to a number of approved banks or exported directly. As the issue of the Placing Shares accounts for approximately 17% of the issued share capital of the Company prior to the Placing, it is conditional upon the passing of a resolution by shareholders authorising the Director to allot such securities. A resolution will be considered at an extraordinary general meeting of the Company, which will be convened for 19 April 2002. In addition, because the issue of the Placing Shares will result in an increase in the issued share capital of the Company of more than 10%, admission of the Placing Shares to dealing on the ESM will be conditional on preparation and publication by the Company of a document comprising ESM Particulars. This document is expected to be published on or around the time of the EGM and the Placing is expected to complete contemporaneously with publication. For more information please contact Kevin Foo / Claire Bolton Leesa Peters / Cindy Dennis Celtic Resources Holdings Plc Capital PR, London Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7593 0001 Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7618 7889/ 0781 661 7959 londonoffice@celticresources.com leesa@capitalww.com Maeve Governey / Rachel Watchorn Eugenee Mulhern Heneghan PR, Dublin Davy Corporate Finance Ltd Tel: + 353 1 660 7395 Tel: + 353 1 679 6363 info@hpr.ie dcf@davy.ie This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange IOEGGGZFRKKGZZM