Asia Resource Minerals : Offer Unconditional and New Board

NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART IN, INTO OR FROM ANY JURISDICTION WHERE TO DO SO WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OR REGULATIONS OF THAT JURISDICTION

1 July 2015

For Immediate Release

Asia Resource Minerals plc ("ARMS" or the "Company")

Offer Declared Wholly Unconditional and Appointment of New Board

As announced by Asia Coal Energy Ventures Limited ("ACE") earlier today, all of the conditions to the cash offer to acquire the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of ARMS not already owned by ACE and funds managed by Argyle Street Management Limited ("the Offer") have been satisfied and the Offer has been declared wholly unconditional.

Upon settlement, ACE will control over 50% of the outstanding ordinary shares of the Company and accordingly, each of the ARMS Directors, Wal King (Chairman), Sir Richard Gozney (Senior Independent Director) and Hamish Tyrwhitt (Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer), have tendered their resignations with immediate effect and the following ACE nominees have been appointed as directors of the Company.

These are as follows:

• Kin Chan

• Dwi Suseno

• Fuganto Widjaja

Wal King, the outgoing Chairman of ARMS, said: "The Company continues to face many challenges. The outgoing board is pleased to have delivered to shareholders the ability to exit at a significant premium. We would like to thank the employees of the Company for their continued commitment in very difficult circumstances and we wish the new board and controlling shareholder every success in moving the Company forward."

Biographies for the incoming ARMS board of directors supplied to ARMS by ACE are as follows. There are no details to be disclosed in connection with Rule 9.6.13 R (2) - (6) of the Listing Rules of the UK Listing Authority in relation to these appointments.

Kin Chan

Mr. Chan is the founding shareholder of Argyle Street Management Limited, and has been the Chief Investment Officer since 2002. He serves on the management boards of other ASM funds. He is also the Chairman of TIH Limited and a Director of OUE Limited, both listed on the Singapore Exchange ("SGX").

Mr. Chan was Chief Executive and Managing Director of Lazard Asia Limited from 2000 to 2001 and managed the firm's advisory business in Asia outside of Japan. Prior to joining Lazard, Mr. Chan was an Executive Director at Goldman, Sachs & Co. where he worked in Hong Kong, New York and Singapore from 1992 to 1999.

Mr. Chan has completed transactions in China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Singapore and Thailand. The aggregate transaction size of all the deals that Mr. Chan has worked on exceeds US$15 billion.

Mr. Chan earned an A.B. degree from Princeton University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where he was a Palmer Scholar. Mr. Chan has a number of academic distinctions including a Rotary Scholarship, United World College Scholarship, 'Princeton University Class of 1941' Scholarship and Ford Motor Company Fellowship.

Fuganto Widjaja

Mr. Fuganto Widjaja, aged 34 years old, is currently the President Director of PT Golden Energy Mines Tbk and Director of PT Sinar Mas Multiartha Tbk He was previously an investment analyst at UBS Bank Singapore.

Mr. Widjaja graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences, Cornell University in 2003 where he majored in Computer Science and Economics, and from the Judge Business School (formerly known as the Judge Institute of Management Studies), Cambridge University in 2004.

Dwi Prasetyo Suseno

Dwi is currently the Managing Director of Sinarmas Mining and Energy, and has over 19 years international experience in Mining, Commodities and Oil & Gas related industries with exposure spanning different countries within Asia and Australasia, primarily Indonesia, Australia and Singapore, as well as some exposure to New Zealand, Timor Leste and PNG business operations.

He has been intricately involved in various facets of business including but not limited to operations, general management, finance, business development as well as corporate legal and international taxation matters. His previous experience also includes working in NYSE listed Fortune 500 company MNC, a top SGX listed resources company, growing private & emerging businesses and Big 4 accounting firms. His exposure to various listing regulations and compliance includes IDX, SGX and NYSE.

During his previous tenure with Straits Asia Resources Ltd, an SGX-listed integrated coal mining group, he was member of the team that assisted in the major acquisition of the Jembayan coal mine in Indonesia, including as a member of the Executive Committee team responsible for executing strategic plans that lead to the ramp up of mine production to around 9 million MT pa. Subsequently, Dwi was part of the team that spearheaded the MBO (Management Buy Out) which spun off the marine and coal logistic company from Straits Asia Resources which was then separately listed in the Indonesia Stock Exchange. Post MBO, he held the position of Group CFO and Executive Director of the new Straits Group, including Executive Director of the new coal mining business unit, in which he was responsible for all facets of the business.

His exposure to mining, oil & gas and commodities related businesses originated in Australia when he worked at Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young, advising various large mining and oil and gas clients. Finally, he also spent some of his career at Baker Hughes, a Fortune 500 NYSE listed oilfield service company, where he was the Director of Baker Hughes Indonesia, a member of the Asia Pacific ethics committee, as well as overseeing Asia Pacific international taxation matters.

Dwi earned his Executive MBA degree from Northwestern University (Kellogg School of Management) and HKUST, and Bachelor of Commerce degree from University of Western Australia. Dwi is also a qualified Fellow member of CPA Australia and member of CPA Singapore.

- ENDS-

Forenquiries,pleaseconta ct:

Further Information

This announcement is not intended to, and does not, constitute or form part of any offer, invitation or the solicitation of an offer to purchase, otherwise acquire, subscribe for, sell or otherwise dispose of any securities, or the solicitation of any vote or approval in any jurisdiction, pursuant to the Offer or otherwise. The Offer is made solely by means of ACE's Offer document and the Form of Acceptance accompanying the Offer document, which contains the full terms and conditions of the Offer, including details of how the Offer may be accepted. Any response to the Offer should be made only on the basis of information contained in the Offer document. Shareholders are advised to read the formal documentation in relation to the Offer carefully. This announcement has been prepared for the purposes of complying with English law, the rules of the London Stock Exchange and the Takeover Code and the information disclosed may not be the same as that which would have been disclosed if this announcement had been prepared in accordance with the laws and regulations of any jurisdiction outside the United Kingdom.

Disclosure requirements of the Takeover Code

Under Rule 8.3(a) of the Takeover Code, any person who is interested in 1% or more of any class of relevant securities of an offeree company or of any securities exchange offeror (being any offeror other than an offeror in respect of which it has been announced that its offer is, or is likely to be, solely in cash) must make an Opening Position Disclosure following the commencement of the offer period and, if later, following the announcement in which any securities exchange offeror is first identified. An Opening Position Disclosure must contain details of the person's interests and short positions in, and rights to subscribe for, any relevant securities of each of (i) the offeree company and (ii) any securities exchange offeror(s). An Opening Position Disclosure by a person to whom Rule 8.3(a) applies must be made by no later than 3.30 pm (London time) on the 10th business day following the commencement of the offer period and, if appropriate, by no later than 3.30 pm (London time) on the 10th business day following the announcement in which any securities exchange offeror is first identified. Relevant persons who deal in the relevant securities of the offeree company or of a securities exchange offeror prior to the deadline for making an Opening Position Disclosure must instead make a Dealing Disclosure.

Under Rule 8.3(b) of the Takeover Code, any person who is, or becomes, interested in 1% or more of any class of relevant securities of the offeree company or of any securities exchange offeror must make a Dealing Disclosure if the person deals in any relevant securities of the offeree company or of any securities exchange offeror. A Dealing Disclosure must contain details of the dealing concerned and of the person's interests and short positions in, and rights to subscribe for, any relevant securities of each of (i) the offeree company and (ii) any securities exchange offeror, save to the extent that these details have previously been disclosed under Rule 8. A Dealing Disclosure by a person to whom Rule 8.3(b) applies must be made by no later than 3.30 pm (London time) on the business day following the date of the relevant dealing.

If two or more persons act together pursuant to an agreement or understanding, whether formal or informal, to acquire or control an interest in relevant securities of an offeree company or a securities exchange offeror, they will be deemed to be a single person for the purpose of Rule 8.3.

Opening Position Disclosures must also be made by the offeree company and by any offeror and Dealing Disclosures must also be made by the offeree company, by any offeror and by any persons acting in concert with any of them (see Rules 8.1, 8.2 and 8.4).

Details of the offeree and offeror companies in respect of whose relevant securities Opening Position Disclosures and Dealing Disclosures must be made can be found in the Disclosure Table on the Takeover Panel's website at www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk, including details of the number of relevant securities in issue, when the offer period commenced and when any offeror was first identified. You should contact the Panel's Market Surveillance Unit on +44(0)20 7638 0129 if you are in any doubt as to whether you are required to make an Opening Position Disclosure or a Dealing Disclosure.

Publication on website

A copy of this announcement will be made available, free of charge subject to certain restrictions relating to persons resident in restricted jurisdictions, at wwwasiarmplc.com by no later than 12 noon (London time) on the Business Day following the date of this announcement. Neither the content of the website referred to in this announcement nor the content of any websites accessible from hyperlinks on the Company's website (or any other websites) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement.

Information relating to shareholders

Please be aware that addresses, electronic addresses and certain information provided by Company shareholders, persons with information rights and other relevant persons for the receipt of communications from the Company may be provided to ACE during the offer period where requested under Section 4 of Appendix 4 of the Takeover Code.