For immediate release

Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands (8th January 2009).

Chaarat (the Company) is pleased to announce additional encouraging drilling results from the C4600 and C4000 Project Areas on the Contact Zone at its 100% held, 604 square kilometres, Chaarat gold property in the Kyrgyz Republic. The Chaarat property had, at the end of 2007, an audited JORC indicated and inferred resource of 3.14 Moz at 4.41 g/t Au. During 2008 the Company carried out 14,000 meters of drilling. The results of the 2008 have all been received and a revised resource statement is being prepared by SRK and is expected to be released in early 2009.  

It is expected that these drilling results along with the other drilling results already published during 2008 will add significantly to the current resource of 3.14 million ounces as well as improve the average grade of the resource.

The two drill holes highlighted here are excerpts from the latest three surface exploration drill holes (two on the C4600 Project Area and one on the C4000 Project Area), which have been drilled recently and for which results have been received. The C4600 & C4000 Project Areas (which together form a part of the Contact Zone), on which a JORC indicated and inferred resource of 230,000 ounces at an average grade of 4.53 and 107,000 ounces at an average grade of 4.02 g/t  respectively was calculated at the end of 2007. Drill results at that time allowed calculation to a depth of 225m (vertical) and 245m (vertical) in, respectively, the C4600 and C4000 Project Areas.

The 2008 drill programme has extended the drilled depth of the mineralised zone in the C4600 Project Area by a further 70m down dip, increasing the continuous extent of mineralisation to a depth of 275m from the surface. Similarly, in the C4000 Project Area the drilled depth was extended by 85m down-dip, increasing the continuation of mineralisation to a depth of 300m from the surface. The mineralisation in C4600 and C4000 Project Areas has now been drilled over a strike length of 330m and 250m respectively, and remains open both along strike and down dip.

The widths and grades of intersections reported here are consistent with the results of previous drilling on these project areas and indicate a 10% increase in strike length and a 20% increase in depth extension. These new drilling results will be incorporated into the updated resource estimate, which is to be published in early 2009.

The Contact Zone

Mineralisation in the Contact Zone is hosted in a wide shear zone that is known to extend for at least 10km on strike on the contact between the underlying Ordovician Chaarat Formation (siltstones and sandstones) and the overlying Devonian Tulkubash Formation (quartzites). The wide mineralised zones dip at 50 to 60 degrees to the North West. The gold mineralisation is associated with sulphides, sericitic alteration and minor quartz veinlets. 

Within the Contact Zone, the Company has delineated three Project Areas - C5300, C4600 and C4000. The project area numbers represent the on-strike location on a line parallel to the Contact Zone. During the 2008 exploration season the Company has been drilling all three Projects Areas (in addition to other Project Areas within the Chaarat licence area) from both surface and underground (see previous Press releases on the Company's web site www.chaarat.com ).

Dekel Golan, CEO of Chaarat comments "These excellent results confirm management's view that the Contact Zone has a significant strike and depth extension and is developing into a meaningful mineralised zone. Of considerable importance is the good continuity and projectability demonstrated by the drilling which, combined with the significant promise demonstrated by other mineralisation in the Main Zone and the less explored but very promising Tulkubash Zone, allows us to pursue, with increased confidence, our intention to establish a low cost bulk mining operation on these wide zones of mineralisation"

Table 1: Significant drill intervals from the C4600 and C4000 Project Areas 2008drilling.

QA/QC PROCEDURES

Sampling Methodology and Quality Control

All samples are sent to the Alex Stewart laboratory in The Kyrgyz Republic, accredited by the UK Accreditation Service, for sample preparation and assays. Genalysis, Australia, a NATA ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratory for analysis, is being used for QA/QC checks of the analysis of Alex Stewart. 20% check samples in the form of 2 Standards, 1 Blank and 1 Duplicate in a batch of 20 samples are being used for quality checks of Alex Stewart assays.

Competent Person

The Competent Person with overall responsibility for this press release is Mr. Sunit Patel, M.Sc. (Geology), FGS, GSSA, who is an employee of Chaarat Gold.  Mr. Patel is an exploration geologist with 21 years of experience in the resource industry who has sufficient experience relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and was supervisor of the work subject of this release. 

About the Chaarat Gold Project

The Chaarat project is situated within the Middle of the Tien Shan Mountains of the Kyrgyz Republic which form part of the Tien Shan gold belt.  At the completion of the 2007 exploration season, a Mineral Resource of 3.14Moz at a grade of 4.41 g/t gold (JORC compliant in the Indicated and Inferred categories) had been delineated. The Company's exploration programme is aimed at increasing the confidence levels in this resource through infill drilling and increasing the resource through down-dip and along-strike extension drilling. 

About Chaarat Gold Holdings or the Company

Chaarat Gold Holdings is an exploration company founded for the purpose of developing the Chaarat Licence Area. Chaarat was admitted to AIM on 8 November 2007.

Disclaimer

This press release includes forward-looking statements.. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors beyond Chaarat's control that would cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Chaarat to be materially different from future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on numerous assumptions regarding Chaarat's present and future business strategies and the environment in which Chaarat will operate in the future. Any forward-looking statements speak only as at the date of this document. Chaarat expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to disseminate any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained in this document to reflect any change in Chaarat's expectations with regard to them or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statements are based. As a result of these factors, the events described in the forward-looking statements in this press release may not occur either partially or at all.