ARGOSY MINING - EXPLORATION UPDATE AUSTRIA GOLD EXPLORATION.

VANCOUVER, B.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 12, 1995-- Argosy has been granted 25 exploration leases (15 square kilometres) over the Gasen gold mines in Styia Province, Austria. In the 14th to 16th centuries, five mines were developed on the property within a two kilometre long segment of a regional shear zone coincident with metamorphosed Palaeozoic volcano-sedimentary rocks. Gold is associated with base metals and arsenopyrite but is reported to be dominantly free milling. Production details are not recorded. Previous geochemical exploration by a base metal mining company defined drill targets but funds were not provided for drilling.

Argosy will complete a program of mapping and sampling of the Gasen shear zone to redefine the known gold targets. Drilling will follow if potential for a major gold resource is indicated by the program.

Field work consisting of channel sampling and surveying has commenced on the Goldeck and Schellgaden properties to confirm the ore grades reported in historical records. Diamond drilling will follow this summer.

The Guginock Mine at Goldeck has a near surface gold zone at a marble/schist contact, documented to be 40 feet in true width at a grade exceeding 0.3 oz gold/ton. Surveying of the gold zone in the shallow underground workings will enable drilling sites to be selected.

On the Schellgaden property, Argosy has sampled exposed sulphide bearing quartz vein outcrops at four localities. The veins are exposed over widths greater than two metres and fall on the main Schellgaden gold trend. Selected grab samples of vein material from different outcrops assayed 0.128 oz gold/ton, 0.94 oz gold/ton, 1.76 oz gold/ton and 3.91 oz gold/ton. The presence of apparently high grade mineralization at surface indicates that medieval mining concentrated only on low sulphide quartz veins showing visible gold. Underground channel sampling of five mines in the district is now underway.

Quotations are currently being received from Austrian contractors for the follow-up drilling program.

Argosy holds the rights to 100% of four gold exploration properties in Austria totaling 192 square kilometres (70 square miles) covering the 28 kilometre trend of the Schellgaden mines, the 40 kilometre long Goldeck property as well as the new Gasen property. Over 55 historic gold mines have now been identified on these properties.

AFRICA DIAMOND EXPLORATION

In Tanzania, drilling has started on the first of 60 aeromagnetic targets at Mabuki, north of the Mwadui Diamond Mine. These anomalies are within the Mabuki kimberlite cluster. Four of seven previously identified pipes not held by the joint venture are being mined for diamonds by artisanal miners. Argosy's exploration methodology will be identical to Zimbabwe where geophysics has so successfully discovered new kimberlites. Two targets can be drill tested each week, a program that will continue through 1995, weather permitting. At Lunguya, field work will commence in June on 63 first and second order aeromagnetic anomalies in the vicinity of the diamondiferous Lunguya kimberlite cluster. The Lunguya area has thick transported overburden that may have prevented detection of kimberlites by previous geochemical sampling in the l950s. This area appears ideal for the effective application of geophysical exploration.

In Zimbabwe, testing of an 800 kilogram sample of eluvial material recovered from seven drill holes into the upper portion of the QK-3 kimberlite pipe at Quest did not yield diamonds. Joint venture partner Reunion Mining PLC considers the three diamonds reported in January, 1995 were likely from a trap site that concentrated the available diamonds eroding from the pipe.

A new pipe, NK-l, has been identified 50 kilometres south of the Quest cluster, and appears to be part of a new cluster. Occurrences of kimberlite indicator minerals (pyropes and kimberlitic ilmenites) and several magnetic anomalies northeast of the Quest cluster indicate additional pipes are also likely in that area. Reinterpretation of aeromagnetic data flown in the early 1980s has identified 77 high priority targets, most of which are on the Mlibizi property. Follow-up work is yielding positive results.

Argosy has discovered 35 kimberlites in Zimbabwe since the beginning of 1994. Argosy is in Year 2 of a staged, four year diamond exploration program in Zimbabwe and Tanzania.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Yale R. Simpson, President

The Vancouver Stock Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this News Release.

CONTACT: Yale R. Simpson

604/689-5529

604/689-5079 (Fax)

INDUSTRY KEYWORD: MINING REPEATS: New York 212-575-8822 or 800-221-2462; Boston 617-330-5311 or

80