Acadian Gold Corporation and Holmer Gold Mines Limited to Amalgamate.

Business Editors

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 27, 2003

Acadian Gold Corporation (TSX-V: ADA) ("Acadian Gold") and Holmer Gold Mines Limited (TSX-V: HGM) ("Holmer Gold") are pleased to announce that they have entered into a letter of intent to amalgamate to create a new company ("Amalco"). The letter of intent was negotiated at arm's length. The amalgamation is subject to due diligence, the execution of a definitive agreement by September 28, 2003, and a fairness opinion and is also subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.

The senior officers of Amalco will be Dr. K. Sethu Raman, President and Chief Executive Officer and G. William Felderhof, Vice-President. The board of directors will consist of six members with two representing Acadian. Under the terms of the letter of intent, each outstanding common share of Holmer and Acadian will be exchanged for a common share of Amalco on a 1:1 basis. Subsequent to the proposed amalgamation Amalco will have 63,899,489 shares issued of which Acadian Gold shareholders will hold 37.3% and Holmer Gold shareholders will hold 62.7%. The major shareholders will be Mr. Dennis MacLeod, Dr. Sethu Raman and Votix Corporation Limited, a private company controlled by Mr. Will Felderhof. All outstanding options and warrants to acquire common shares of Holmer Gold and Acadian Gold will be replaced by comparable rights for Amalco.

Holmer Gold is an established, Canadian, precious metals-oriented company, focused on the continuing growth and development of its two highly promising silver and gold discoveries in Cuba and Timmins, Ontario. Holmer Gold, as the operator with 50% interest, is currently sponsoring the development of Cuba's first silver producer, as well as 100% owned advanced high grade gold project, located in Ontario's Timmins' prolific gold camp. In October 2002, Watts, Griffis and McQuat Limited (WGM) calculated an indicated mineral resource on the Property of 422,000 tonnes at an uncut grade of 17.78 grams gold per tonne (422,000 tonnes grading 13.68 grams gold per tonne cut to 50 grams gold per tonne) and 890,000 tonnes grading (cut grade) 6.4 grams gold per tonne (NI 43-101 compliant). These resource tonnage calculations were prepared by WGM using a 6 gram gold per tonne cutoff.

The Timmins property is subject to an option agreement with Lakeshore Gold Corp. of Vancouver who can earn a 50% interest by making certain payments and confirming through diamond drilling that the property contains an indicated mineral resource of at least 500,000 ounces of gold. This diamond drilling program is currently underway.

Acadian Gold controls six gold properties in Nova Scotia comprising 677 claims covering 27,080 acres (66,888 ha). Two of these, Forest Hill and Beaver Dam, are advanced exploration projects that boast large databases resulting from extensive exploration/underground development programs completed in the 1980s. The Company's current focus is the Forest Hill property where in the 1980s a bulk sample totalling approximately 104,000 tonnes taken from various sites yielded a recovered grade of 6.07 g/t gold. The mine grade during the last two months of operation in 1989 was 12.6 g/t.

Acadian Gold is currently diamond drilling at Forest Hill, Nova Scotia, where it is testing the new ore model, called the "Ribbon Model", recently developed and proven successful in Bendigo, Australia. Acadian Gold believes the ribbon model is applicable to all of its properties in Nova Scotia based on well documented geological similarities between the Bendigo gold camp and the Nova Scotia goldfields (Meguma terrane). The ribbon model indicates gold mineralized shoots occur in horizontal - sub-horizontal ribbons that repeat at regular, predictable intervals with depth within vein structures, and also repeat laterally in adjacent vein structures.

Acadian Gold believes that shallow plunging, multiple stacked gold mineralized shoots at Forest Hill are in fact indicating the applicability of the ribbon model. The current drilling program at Forest Hill is designed to define what are believed to be extensions to ribbons and potential new ribbons, as well as targets for a subsequent planned underground correlation bulk sampling program.

Dr. Sethu Raman, President and CEO of Holmer Gold said, "The proposed amalgamation will create a platform for future growth and is the first step in our long term strategy. Our intention is to become a bigger player in the Canadian gold mining industry, both through internal growth and acquisition. Initially, our primary focus will be to continue the development of the Timmins, Forest Hill and Beaver Dam gold projects with the objective of taking these to production."

G. William Felderhof, President and CEO of Acadian Gold, further added, "We are pleased with the proposed amalgamation with Holmer. Holmer's excellent gold project in the Timmins gold camp fits well with our philosophy of developing Canadian gold projects. As well, synergies will be created by bringing together experienced professionals from both companies and considerable savings will result through reduction in operating costs. Amalco will be a larger, stronger entity that will considerably benefit shareholders of both companies."

Acadian Gold Corporation - ADA-TSX-V
Shares Outstanding - 23,820,750
www.acadiangold.ca

Holmer Gold Mines Limited - HGM-TSX-V
Shares Outstanding - 40,078,739
www.holmergold.com

The TSX Venture Exchange has in no way passed upon the merits of the proposed transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.