asia pacific acquires inanhoe mines

BREAKING NEWS: ASIA GOLD ACQUIRES IVANHOE MINES MONGOLIAN COAL DIVISION Gene Wusaty, president of the coal division of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd., and David Owens, president of Asia Gold Corp., have confirmed that the two companies have reached an agreement in principle for Asia Gold to acquire Ivanhoe's coal division in exchange for 82,576,383 common shares of Asia Gold. The proposed transaction would result in Asia Gold becoming a majority-owned, publicly traded subsidiary of Ivanhoe Mines, and having a coal division and a mineral exploration division. The transaction would result in Ivanhoe Mines owning approximately 91.4 per cent of the issued and outstanding common shares of Asia Gold and 88.8 per cent on a fully diluted basis. As part of the transaction, Ivanhoe Mines has agreed to extend an interim working line of credit to Asia Gold of up to $10-million (U.S.). Asia Gold is one of the leading mineral exploration companies in Mongolia. Asia Gold is focused on discovering large scale copper-gold porphyry and epithermal deposits in the Gobi region of southern Mongolia. The Company has an impressive land package of 104 licenses covering 33,938 square kilometers. On December 15, 2003 Asia Gold went public on the TSX Venture exchange, raising gross proceeds of $15 million. Since then, our exploration teams have continued to make progress at identifying drill targets on our priority gold and copper prospects in southern Mongolia. We are very pleased to have two value added major shareholders; Ivanhoe Mines (47%) and BHP Billiton (7%) Mongolia offers tremendous mineral potential. Asia Gold’s largest shareholder, Ivanhoe Mines, has discovered the giant Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold porphyry deposit just 150km east of our main exploration targets in the West Gobi region. Oyu Tolgoi contains in-situ metal valued in excess of US$100 billion and is located within the prolific Tian Shan Gold-Copper belt. Gold production from this belt is second only to the Witwatersrand region of South Africa. Asia Gold’s two discoveries in 2005 are in the Tian Shan Gold-Copper belt. At Khongor we announced a discovery of widespread porphyry copper-gold mineralization and at Naran Bulag, we discovered high grade gold veins. Further trenching and drilling is on going at these sites. Asia Gold has recently added new projects in Indonesia and Bulgaria to the exploration portfolio. Kaputusan is a porphyry copper-gold prospect on Bacan Island, Maluku. In Bulgaria Asia Gold is earning a 51% interest in 4 exploration licenses including the Tashlaka Hill epithermal gold deposit. Drilling is planned at Kaputusan and Tashlaka Hill in 2006. Asia Gold anticipates a very active 2006 with 5 (five) drill programs planned. Please contact us today for a complete investor package and become part of Asia Gold's growth