Cambior Closed a Mortgage Loan on Its 50% Interest in the Niobec Mine.

Business Editors

MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 3, 2000

All amounts are expressed in US dollars

Cambior Inc. (TSE:CBJ.) (AMEX:CBJ) confirms today that it has closed, on June 30, 2000, a mortgage loan on its 50 % interest in the Niobec mine for an aggregate of $13 million from Jipangu Inc. and a financial institution.

Cambior is still in discussion with a second financial institution to increase the mortgage to a maximum of $16 million.

Proceeds from this loan, together with a portion of Cambior's available liquidities, enabled Cambior to complete payment of the $17.2 million remaining to be repaid to meet its $75 million repayment obligation by June 30, 2000, to its lenders under its Credit Facility Agreement.

Cambior Inc. is an international gold producer with operations, development projects and exploration activities throughout the Americas. Cambior's shares trade on the Toronto and American (AMEX-NASDAQ) stock exchanges under the symbol "CBJ".

This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements", as defined in the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.

Such risks and uncertainties include those disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" in Cambior's Annual Information Form (AIF) filed with the Ontario Securities Commission, the Quebec Securities Commission, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (Form 40-F) and other regulatory authorities.