February 7th, 2003

ONTARIO, Canada - Hot on the heels of the successful ConSep ACACIA Reactor 6000 commissioning at Placer Dome's Porcupine Joint Venture, another Placer Dome site has ordered an ACACIA Reactor. Placer Dome Musselwhite Mine, which processes 4,000 tonnes per day of gold ore, has placed an order for a ConSep ACACIA Reactor 3000 following extensive on-site pilot tests with overall recovery exceeding 97%.

The mill circuit includes two Batch Knelson CD30 model Concentrators. Currently, overall gravity recovery averages about 22% of total gold production.

Installation of the ACACIA Reactor will eliminate the shaking table, which is currently used to upgrade the concentrates.

The ACACIA Reactor is expected to increase gravity production to 40%, and overall mill recovery by 0.2%, as indicated by Metallurgical Coordinator Dave Hall.

Once installed, this will be Placer Dome's third ConSep ACACIA Reactor in production following the Porcupine Joint Venture in Ontario, Canada and the Porgera gold mine in Papua New Guinea.

Manufacturing of the ACACIA Reactor 3000 will commence immediately and the unit is scheduled for commissioning at the Musselwhite Mine in April 2003.

The ConSep ACACIA Reactor is a patented, high efficiency leaching system that is developed to handle high-grade concentrates produced by the Batch Knelson Concentrator. The system is designed to maximize gold recovery from gravity concentrates and provides numerous process advantages over a conventional gold room.

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