Augen Capital Corp.: Portfolio Update, Financial Analysis abd Dividend Status.

Business Editors

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 26, 2000

Augen Capital Corp. (CDNX:AUG.) ("Augen") is pleased to announce that two major portfolio purchases have been added during the first quarter of this year. These are Golden Temple Mining Corp. (CDNX:GTM) and Quaterra Resources Inc. (CDNX:QTA). The Golden Temple purchase is 625,000 shares at a price of $0.16 per share and 625,000 warrants exercisable over a period of one year at $0.20 per share, and for an additional year at $0.25 per share. Including a private placement and market purchase, Augen acquired 890,000 Quaterra shares, at an average price of $0.13 per share.

Golden Temple is well on its way in establishing itself as a significant exploration company focussed on the discovery of volcanic massive sulfide deposits in central Mexico. They have brought Noranda Inc. in as a partner in 3 properties and have several others where Golden Temple is the operator. Since acquisition of our position, the shares of Golden Temple have reached a high of $0.51 per share, i.e.: 319% increase from our acquisition price.

Quaterra also has a Mexican project, but in the Zacatecas area, and has produced substantial drill results in the past 3 months on this property. However, the project of Quaterra that has attracted our attention is the earning of a 50% interest on selected properties of Eastmain Resources Inc. in the Abitibi region of northeastern Ontario. This land package has over 15 electromagnetic anomalies identified to date in a volcanic rock sequence that is most attractive. Since acquiring our position, the shares of Quaterra have reached a high of $0.52, i.e.: 400% increase from our acquisition price.

The significance of these portfolio additions is the increase from 5 to 7 major positions in emerging resource companies. The others are CGX Energy Inc., Foran Mining, Millstream Mines Ltd., Applied Carbon Technology, and Orogrande Resources Inc. All of these positions are either in excess of one million shares (including warrants) or over one million dollars Canadian in portfolio value. If any of these 7 positions were to reach a value of $1 per share, it would increase the asset value of the company by 25%. Some of these companies, if not all, have much greater potential and have demonstrated this earlier, through market activity.

At this juncture, our last interim statement was the November 30, 1999 fiscal quarter. Our audit for the year ending February 28, 2000, will likely be completed by the end of May. As of March 31, 2000, our unaudited fair market value was $4.03 million and issued share capital $3.84 million. None of this, of course, reflects the true intrinsic value of our warrant position, which carries a zero cost, or the intangible value of an exceptional board of directors and advisory board.

Liquifiable assets include $970,000 in cash, money market, bonds, debentures and 'blue chip' securities, as at March 31, 2000. Market value of resource holdings add an estimated $1.7 million, excluding warrants.

The company must expand the number of larger holdings by another 10 to 13 resource companies in order to gain recognition in the market place. This will entail additional financing, some of which will likely be supported by existing shareholders.

It is apparent at this juncture that Augen should not be distributing to shareholders, but looking to shareholders for support in the current year. Merchant banks with portfolio assets are generally advised to make distributions after a significant portfolio gain.

With this in mind, the Board of Directors has decided to defer the dividend, temporarily, pending portfolio realization. At the same time, shareholders are no doubt aware that participation in any future financing will most likely greatly assist in the advancement of Augen.

In conclusion, we are reminding investors that our portfolio is updated monthly and this can be viewed on our website (www.augencc.com). As of March 31, 2000, management estimates fair market value at $0.21 per share. In the past 3 years, investors have paid up to 3 times fair value per share owing to the perceived growth potential. We believe that this year will see continued improvements in the resource business and substantial growth in Augen's assets.

The Canadian Venture Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the information contained herein.