Conquest & Newcastle Option Iskut River Property Acquiring Interest in Gold, Silver, Copper, Zinc Mineral Resource.

Business Editors

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 22, 2004

Conquest Resources Limited (TSX Venture:CQR) and Newcastle Minerals Ltd. (TSX Venture:NCM) of Victoria are pleased to announce they have signed an option agreement under which they can jointly earn up to 100% interest in the Rock and Roll Property owned by the Forrest Syndicate ("Forrest"). The Rock and Roll Property comprises 169 mining units and is contiguous to the northwest of the Phiz Property, owned by Newcastle and subject to an option/joint venture agreement with Conquest.

The Rock & Roll property is located in the Iskut River area of the Liard Mining District, some 100km north of Stewart, BC, on the eastern edge of the Coast Mountains. The Iskut River mining camp includes the operating Eskay Creek mine (Barrick Gold), the former Snip mine (Cominco/Prime) as well as the Bronson Slope and Johnny Mountain prospects. Each of the Snip and Eskay Creek deposits comprised in excess of 1 million ounces gold.

In a separate agreement Conquest and Newcastle have agreed that Conquest shall have an initial 70% interest in the Rock and Roll option by contributing 100% of the first year's exploration expenditures. Thereafter, Conquest and Newcastle will contribute 70/30 according to their respective interests. The Rock and Roll Property is subject to underlying production royalties to third parties.

With the new agreement, Conquest/Newcastle have over 5,000 hectares of contiguous mining claims in the Iskut River camp. The agreement, which is subject to regulatory approval and due diligence, provides that to earn their interest, Conquest/Newcastle will expend at least $800,000 to carry out exploration on the property in stages by December 31, 2007 and complete a feasibility study by December 31, 2012, having incurred a further minimum expenditure of $1,000,000. In addition, Conquest/Newcastle will issue a total of 170,000 common shares of Conquest and 330,000 common shares of Newcastle to Forrest of which Conquest and Newcastle will respectively issue 25,000 shares and 50,000 shares to Forrest within 5 days following acceptance of the deal by the TSX Venture Exchange and completion of satisfactory due diligence. Issuance of the remaining shares is optional depending upon Conquest/Newcastle electing to proceed to further stages of expenditure and are to be issued in three further tranches of similar number on the first, second and third anniversaries of the agreement. The final payment of 70,000 shares of Conquest and 130,000 shares of Newcastle will be made upon completion of a feasibility study and election to proceed to construction and financing of a mine.

Phase 1 of the exploration programme requires Conquest/Newcastle to expend at least $200,000 by December 31, 2004. Further phases, which are optional to Conquest/Newcastle, call for the cumulative expenditure of $400,000 by December 31, 2005, $600,000 by December 31, 2006 and $800,000 by December 31, 2007.

The Rock and Roll property is located on the south side of the Iskut River approximately 7km west of the Snip mine and 50km west of the Eskay Creek mine. Previous work on the Rock and Roll Property by Prime Resources in the late 1980s-early 1990s and by Redstar Resources Corporation in 1997 outlined an inferred mineral resource of volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) mineralization comprising 675,000 tonnes at an average grade of 1.75g/t gold, 233.8g/t silver, 2.2% zinc, 0.5% lead and 0.4% copper known as the Black Dog Zone. Massive to semi-massive sulphide mineralization was reported over a northwesterly trending strike length of about 700 metres with widths varying from 40-200 metres. Several higher grade sections were noted, including a 2.99 metre intersection in hole RR91-26 of 14.9g/t gold, 21.1g/t silver, 1.26% zinc, 0.02% lead and 1.68% copper and a 10.0 metre intersection in hole RR91-37 of 3.0g/t gold, 375.5g/t silver, 5.07% zinc, 1.08% lead and 1.08% copper.

In 1997, Redstar Resources Corporation completed a 10 hole (2,378 metre) drill programme which re-enforced the continuity of the favourable geology that hosts both the Black Dog zone and the SRV mineralized zone located 400 metres to the south and resulted in the extension of the mineralized zones to the north, northwest and to the south. Redstar also identified an intense alteration zone (silicification with stringers of sulphides) 500 metres to the west, under limestone cover rocks which has been interpreted by Redstar as indicating potential for stratigraphically deeper mineralization. Although Conquest/Newcastle have no reason to question the accuracy of previous results, planned exploration work is intended, in part, to verify and substantiate the earlier work.

Commenting on the announcement, Conquest's President, Terence McKillen, stated: "We are extremely pleased to be expanding our activities into northwestern British Columbia. The Rock and Roll Property, together with the adjacent Phiz Property, give us exposure to 5,000 hectares in the Iskut River mining camp. We believe there is excellent potential to add to the inferred mineral resource on the Rock and Roll Property and we look forward to working with Newcastle as a partner in these efforts."

About Conquest

Conquest is currently engaged in exploring its Alexander Gold Property at Red Lake, Ontario, its Aurora Gold Project at Detour Lake, Ontario, and its Phiz Gold Property in Northwestern British Columbia's Iskut River area. Drilling is planned for all of the properties in 2004.

At December 31, 2003, Conquest had cash of approximately $3.0 million and a minority investment interest in Oxus Gold plc currently valued at $1.1 million. Oxus operates the Amantaytau gold mine in Usbekistan, which achieved production start up in December 2003 and the Jerooy gold deposit in Kyrghizstan with an estimated production start up by mid-2005.

There are currently 56,882,997 shares of Conquest issued and outstanding.

About Newcastle

Newcastle has been active in exploring the Iskut River Gold camp for 17 years. The company has increased its land holdings in northwestern British Columbia during the past three years. These holdings include the Phiz and Rock and Roll claims that total over 5,000 hectares of contiguous mining claims. In addition, Newcastle holds 100% ownership of the Snip North, Bug/Waratah and Target projects which total 152 mineral claim units.

There are currently 5,528,960 shares of Newcastle issued and outstanding.

Newcastle Minerals Ltd., 10335 Wilson Road, North Saanich, BC, V8L 5S8

The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.