Cambior Inc.: Drilling Results-Santo Nino Property, Mexico.

Business Editors

MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 11, 2000

All amounts in US dollars

Cambior Inc. (TSE:CBJ.) (AMEX:CBJ) is pleased to announce the results from an initial core drilling program at the Santo Nino project in Mexico.

The Santo Nino property consists of an exploration concession that covers 1,400 hectares in the Sierra Madre of southwestern Chihuahua.

Work by Cambior on the property in 1998 and 1999 defined a significant rock chip gold anomaly that was subsequently drill tested. The core drilling program consisted of five holes, for a total of 1,525 metres, and was completed in November 1999. These holes were spaced 200-400 metres apart along a 1.4-kilometre, east-west drill fence in an effort to partially test a large, volcanic-hosted, high-sulfidation epithermal system and the concomitant gold anomaly. The rock chip gold anomaly forms an arcuate band that is 2,500 metres in length and approximately 400 metres in width. An area characterized by extensive soil cover and scattered exposures of barren volcanic rock lies internal to the arcuate gold anomaly. Prior to Cambior's campaign, the property had never been drilled.

Each drill hole cut gold-bearing Tertiary volcanic rocks that are extensively altered to silica-alunite and variable amounts of vuggy silica, with four of the holes intersecting more than 200 metres of this alteration. The depth of oxidation approaches 300 metres in these four holes.

The core was split and one half of the core was sampled at two-metre intervals. These samples were sent to Bondar Clegg's facilities in Hermosillo, Mexico for assay. The best results were obtained from hole 99-03, which cut multiple mineralized intervals:

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Hole No.*  Angle  From   To  Interval(m)  Au(g/t)  Ag(g/t)  Comments

  99-03       90    0    14      14        2.96      ----     poor
          degree                                            recovery;
                                                              oxide
                  112   118       6        6.96      ----     oxide
                  120   122       2        1.26      ----     oxide
                  252   254       2        1.31      ----     oxide
                  292   294       2       14.73       252     mixed
                                                              oxide/
                                                              sulfide

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* Please see Table 1 attached for a summary of the drilling results
  for the five holes.

Hole 99-03 is collared outside of the surface gold anomaly and within the area characterized by extensive soil cover.

The nearest hole to 99-03 lies 340 metres to the east, and this hole is angled to the east, away from 99-03.

Cambior holds an option to purchase a 100 % interest in the property and has invested approximately $450,000 to date. The exploration work completed has resulted in the discovery of a large, high-sulfidation epithermal system with the demonstrated capacity to host gold mineralization of significant grade. The mineralized zones intercepted in hole 99-03 are open in all directions. Further exploration work will be planned after results from a soil sampling program and preliminary metallurgical work are received and compiled.

Cambior Inc. is an international diversified gold producer with operations, development projects and exploration activities throughout the Americas. Cambior's shares trade on the Toronto and American (AMEX) 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 are 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.

Table 1.   Summary of 1999 Santo Nino Drilling Results

Hole No.   Angle  From   To  Interval(m)  Au(g/t)  Ag(g/t)  Comments
         (degree)

  99-01     70     168  170       2        2.92      ----     oxide
                   212  214       2        0.51      ----     oxide
  99-02     90     264  266       2        0.63      ----     oxide
                   286  288       2        0.87      ----     oxide
  99-03     90       0   14      14        2.96      ----      poor
                                                            recovery;
                                                                 oxide
                   112  118       6        6.96      ----     oxide
                   120  122       2        1.26      ----     oxide
                   252  254       2        1.31      ----     oxide
                   292  294       2       14.73       252     mixed
                                                                oxide/
                                                               sulfide
  99-04     55        No values greater than 0.5 g/t gold
  99-05     90        No values greater than 0.5 g/t gold