Ariel Receives Environmental Permit for Open Pit Mining.

VANCOUVER, B.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 8, 1996--Ariel Resources Ltd. (TSE:AU.) is pleased to announce that it was notified Tuesday by the Costa Rican Ministry of Energy & the Environment that its Environmental Impact Study has been approved for open pit mining operations for the Fortuna pit at its San Martin mine in Costa Rica.

Approval is subject only to the company making the required restoration deposit guarantee within the next 30 days. Ariel believes that the issuance of this permit in Costa Rica, which is noted for its environmental consciousness, is due to Ariel being able to demonstrate an environmentally acceptable approach to open pit mining and processing.

The Fortuna is the smallest of two San Martin deposits which have been drilled sufficiently to establish mineable reserves and to provide data for pit design. The Fortuna reserves, according to a report dated 11 March 1994 by T.C.&A. President Tim Coates, P.Eng., are as follows: -0-

Probable    750,232 tonnes at 2.16 grams/tonne     52,045 oz.
Possible    122,718 tonnes at 3.38 grams/tonne     13,336 oz.
Probable
 Dump Leach  65,937 tonnes at 0.61 grams/tonne      1,293 oz.
            --------------                         ----------
Total       939,087 tonnes at 2.21 grams/tonne     66,674 oz.

-0-

The Fortuna pit was selected to permit first as it may be placed into production quickly with minimum pre-operative pit preparation and a stripping ratio of less than 1:1.

Initial production will begin shortly with the selective mining of two high grade veins. Each vein in the deposit is about 1 metre wide and indicates grades in excess of 7.8 grams/tonne. This ore will be trucked to the company's Matapalo C.I.P. mill for processing.

The INNOVAT Continuous Flow Vat Leaching Pilot Plant has completed several pre-production test runs. Tests indicate recoveries will be 80 percent-88 percent in 36 hours for the coarse ore and 92 percent in 24 hours for the fines. The highly-weathered oxide ore contains a high percentage of fines which increase even more after milling to the required minus 4 mesh.

A new carbon-in-leach/carbon-in-pulpcircuit will be constructed to treat the fines from the milling of open pit ore which will operate in parallel with the INNOVAT plant. This plant should be in operation in early 1997 and this will allow processing of the lower grade ore from the Fortuna pit up to 400 tons per day (TPD).

The first 1,000 TPD INNOVAT Plant design and construction will begin shortly and should be ready to start pouring gold in late 1997. The San Rafael will be the next deposit for which an Environmental Impact Study will be prepared and a permit requested for open pit mining at a rate of 3,000 tonnes per day.

The San Rafael deposit has total mineable reserves of approximately 5 million tonnes grading 1.56 grams per tonne.

Ariel Resources Ltd. has agreed to merge its operations with those of Dakota Mining Corp. as announced in a joint News Release dated Oct. 3, 1996.

The contribution of Dakota's excellent management of open pit operations in mountainous country similar to that of Costa Rica, combined with Ariel's many years of experience in startup of operations in Latin America, should help accelerate the achieving of a production of 80,000 ounces per year in Costa Rica.

The combined operations will be in a position to achieve its goal of becoming a 200,000 ounce per year gold producer in the foreseeable future. -0- On behalf of the Board of Directors

CONTACT: Ariel Resources Ltd.

Art Charpentier, 604/682-2201, (fax) 604/682-0318

1-800-665-7175

E-MAIL: [e-mail]