Attention Business Editors:
SUPREME COURT OF VENEZUELA RATIFIES PLACER DOME'S MINERAL TENURE OF LAS CRISTINAS
VANCOUVER, June 11 /CNW/ - Placer Dome Inc. is pleased to announce that
the Supreme Court of Venezuela has declared all of Inversora Mael/Crystallex's
claims inadmissible in a final and unappealable ruling.
As such, Minera Las Cristinas C.A. (MINCA), the joint venture company
between Placer Dome Inc. (70%) and Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana (CVG,
30%), has the sole and exclusive mining rights over all Las Cristinas
concessions including 4 and 6. The Las Cristinas deposit is located in the
southeast of Venezuela, in the state of Bolivar, where Placer Dome is
developing a gold mine at a capital cost estimated to be U.S. $600 million.
Placer Dome initiated the construction of the project in August 1997 but
suspended construction activities in January 1998, pending outcome of the
litigation. A decision to resume construction will be made in consultation
with CVG and following completion of project financing. Construction is
estimated to take 22 months. The gold reserves of Las Cristinas are estimated
to be 11.8 million ounces and it is expected to produce approximately 450,000
ounces of gold for over 20 years with an average cost of U.S. $200 per ounce.
Placer Dome Inc. is one of the world's largest gold mining companies,
producing more than 2.5 million ounces (78 tonnes) of gold annually at a cash
production cost that is among the lowest in the industry. The Corporation's
shares are traded under the symbol PDG on the Toronto, New York, Montreal,
Paris, Swiss and Australian stock exchanges. International Depository
Receipts for its shares are traded on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
Complete information on the Placer Dome Group is available on most
leading Databases including Stardata (CNW), Dow Jones Telerate, Bloomberg
Financial Markets, Infoglobe, Infomart or QL Systems in Canada and Dow Jones
News Retrieval, Bloomberg Financial Markets, Standard and Poors, Nexis,
Dialog, CompuServe or First Call, in the United States.
%SEDAR: 00002304E
-0- 06/11/98
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