[2] The ship was laid down at Devonport Dockyard on 25 July 1963, was launched on 19 December 1964 and commissioned with the Pennant number F45 on 14 May 1966.
[6] Two oil-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers fed steam at 550 pounds per square inch (3,800 kPa) and 850 °F (454 °C) to a pair of double reduction geared steam turbines that in turn drove two propeller shafts, with the machinery rated at 30,000 shaft horsepower (22,000 kW), giving a speed of 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph).
An MRS3 fire control system was carried over the ship's bridge to direct the 4.5-inch guns, while a GWS22 director for Seacat was mounted on the hangar roof.
[6] From 1975 to 1979, Minerva was refitted at Chatham Dockyard where she was converted to the Batch 2 (or Exocet) conversion.
The Limbo anti-submarine mortar was removed to give a larger flight deck and the ship's hangar was enlarged to allow a Westland Lynx helicopter to be operated, while two triple STWS torpedo tubes provided short range anti-submarine capability.
Anti-aircraft armament consisted of one Seacat launcher mounted forward of the Exocet containers and two more mounted aft on the hangar roof, backed up by two Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft guns on the bridge wings.
In 1970, Minerva, like many other British vessels including other Leanders, deployed on Beira Patrol, an operation designed to prevent oil from reaching the landlocked Rhodesia via Mozambique, before visiting various ports around Asia and the Pacific.
Between December 1975 and March 1979, Minerva underwent modernisation, including the addition of Exocet missiles.
While there Minerva got involved in the Cold War when she shadowed Kiev, the nameship of a three-ship class of large aircraft carriers.
On 1 June 1982 her radar detected an Argentinian C-130 and vectored a flight of patrolling Sea Harriers towards it.
She was relieved by HMS Penelope in May and returned home via the Patagonian Canal visiting Valparaíso, Chile, Lima, Peru, Panama and Florida.
On her return and showing her age, Minerva was laid up in March 1992, her long and eventful career finally coming to an end.