Frasers Underground Mine, NZ, Commissioned

MEDIA STATEMENT

17 January 2008

OceanaGold Successfully Commissions Frasers Underground Mine, New Zealand

OceanaGold Corporation (“OceanaGold” or “the Company”) is pleased to report the successful commissioning of the Frasers Underground mine at the Macraes operation in the South Island of New Zealand. This is the second new gold mine that the Company has commissioned in the past 12 months. Frasers has been completed on schedule, at a capital cost net of gold revenue of NZ$33.4 million. This includes NZ$7.7 million for additional development to de-risk the first year of production.

The Frasers Underground has been developed on the down-dip extension of the ore body currently being mined via Macraes open-pit. This new underground mine is scheduled to produce approximately 900,000 tonnes of ore in 2008 which will be processed through the existing Macraes processing plant. Frasers concentrate represents about 16% of the total throughput for the Macraes autoclave with the remainder coming from Macraes and Reefton concentrates. Underground development to date totals 6.5 kilometres and will continue simultaneously as mining progresses. Exploration is ongoing and results at depth continue to demonstrate strong continuity with numerous higher-grade areas defined.

John Kinyon, Vice-President of New Zealand Operations commented, “We are pleased to have completed the Frasers Underground within our scheduled timeframe. Development rates exceeded our targets during 2007 and were able to access more ore faces than anticipated. As a result, Frasers has been scheduled to produce 900,000 tonnes of ore in 2008 versus the 800,000 tonnes per annum anticipated in the project’s feasibility study. The addition of our third mine in New Zealand gives OceanaGold significant flexibility to achieve its 2008 production targets.”

ENDS

About OceanaGold

OceanaGold currently operates in the South Island of New Zealand and in the Philippines. The Company’s assets encompass New Zealand’s largest gold mine at Macraes which includes the recently commissioned Frasers Underground operation, a new mine in the Reefton Goldfield also in New Zealand and the Didipio

Gold-Copper Project in northern Luzon, Philippines scheduled for completion in early 2009. The Company expects to achieve gold production of approximately 500,000 gold equivalent ounces (AuEq) in 2009.

OceanaGold is listed on the Toronto, Australian and New Zealand stock exchanges under the symbol “OGC”.

Cautionary Statement

Statements in this release may be viewed as forward-looking statements. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "estimates" or "intends", or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. There are no assurances the Company can fulfil such forward-looking statements and the Company undertakes no obligation to update such statements. Such forward-looking statements are only predictions; actual events or results may differ materially as a result of risks facing the Company, some of which are beyond the Company's control.

NOT FOR DISSEMINATION OR DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATES AND NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO US NEWSWIRE SERVICES.

© Scoop Media