Canarc and Grassalco Sign Amending Agreement to Facilitate Development of the Benzdorp Gold Project, Suriname.

Business Editors

VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 4, 2002

Bradford J. Cooke, President and C.E.O of Canarc Resource Corp. (TSX:CCM)(OTCBB:CRCUF) is pleased to announce that Canarc and its partner, Grassalco, have signed an Amending Agreement to facilitate renewed exploration and development work on the Benzdorp gold project in Suriname.

Canarc first entered into an option agreement regarding the Benzdorp property with Grassalco, the state mining company of Suriname, in April 1996. After spending US$ 2 million on exploration, Canarc joint ventured Benzdorp with Placer Dome in November 1997, whereby Placer Dome could earn up to a 60% interest in the project by paying Canarc US$ 20.3 million over 5 years and spending all of the funds necessary to complete a positive feasibility study sufficient for Canarc and Placer to finance the construction of a large gold mine on the property. All work on the project was halted until Canarc received its title rights to Benzdorp from Grassalco, and when that did not occur, Placer Dome relinquished its option in August 1998.

Over the past year, the two companies have worked diligently to resolve the outstanding title and contract issues. This Amending Agreement reflects the new realities of the gold markets since 1996, significantly reducing Canarc's schedule of cash payments, adding several years to the exploration and development schedule, and securing Canarc's ownership rights to Benzdorp.

The new Amending Agreement allows Canarc to earn up to a 100% operating interest in Benzdorp by spending US$ 3 million on exploration, making US$300,000 in cash payments and delivering a positive feasibility study. Grassalco retains the rights to small scale placer mining and a net revenue interest, either a floating net smelter return of 1.5% to 6% based on the price of gold or a 20% net profits share after Canarc recovers all of its capital investment with interest.

At 1380 km2, Benzdorp is one of the largest mineral properties in the country. The Benzdorp property is also the most prolific gold producing region in all of Suriname, having produced over 1,000,000 oz. gold historically, including 500,000 oz. from bucket-line dredging and 500,000 oz. by porknocking (small scale hydraulic mining) of the extensive, gold rich alluvial placer deposits.

From 1996 to 1997, Canarc explored the easternmost 5% of the property, and discovered several large and/or high-grade gold prospects within a semi-continuous, gold mineralized belt 20km long. Virtually every creek draining this gold mineralized belt has been mined for gold. Canarc has now confirmed twelve gold soil anomalies, indicating the presence of multiple large lode gold source areas within volcanic, sedimentary and intrusive rocks of the favorable Guyana Shield greenstone belt.

Follow-up deep augering in four gold prospect areas has confirmed large gold mineralized zones now ready for trenching and drilling. The first target, JQA, averages almost 1 gpt gold over a 750 m long x 250 m wide area, open in all directions, based on 160 deep auger holes (10 m deep on average) and two long bulldozer trenches which returned 1.2 gpt over 62 m and 0.80 gpt over 78 m, open in all directions.

Geological mapping confirms that the JQA zone consists of intense quartz veins and stockworks in a diorite intrusion, indicating a "gold porphyry" style of mineralization. The diorite intrusion is at least 1 km wide by 1 km long and appears to be mineralized throughout. The exploration target for JQA is a gold porphyry deposit of several hundred million tons grading 1.0 gpt.

Bulldozer trenching in the JQA zone 1 km south of the JQA anomaly has also confirmed strong gold mineralization in saprolite. Trench JQS-1 (trending east-west) recently returned 2.68 gpt over a 19 m width along the eastern edge of the JQS zone.

Another 700 m west of the JQA zone, across Pointu Creek, deep auger results in the JQW zone have identified gold mineralization and grades in diorite similar to the JQA zone. Whether the JQW mineralization is a separate body or simply a western extension of the JQA zone can only be tested by diamond drilling, as the intervening ground is covered by creek gravels.

Recent deep augering at the JQB target 1.5 km southeast of JQA has intersected very high grade, shear zone gold mineralization in quartz veins. One 2 metre interval assayed 788 gpt (duplicated by repeat assays), followed by 2 metres grading 38 gpt in the next interval. Another hole bottomed in 2 m running 55 gpt gold and several holes returned 2 m intervals exceeding 5 gpt.

Clearly, the potential for high-grade shear zones is good but has not yet been systematically evaluated.

The top 60 meters of gold mineralization at JQA should be soft saprolite ore that need not be drilled, blasted or crushed and should have a very low strip ratio, thereby resulting in low operating costs. Perhaps the best example of this type of gold mine is the Brasilia Mine of Rio Tinto and TVX Newmont in Brazil. The deposit is very large (320 million tonnes) but low grade (0.43 gpt) yet cash operating costs were only US$191 per oz in 2001!

Canarc now plans to conduct a US $100,000 grid-trenching program on the JQ gold prospects over the next 3 months in order to better define targets for drilling. An aggressive drill program is planned to start early next year using Canarc's own Longyear 38 diamond drill currently located in Suriname.

Suriname has new mining legislation pending to attract foreign investors into the mining sector. Some attractive features of the new policy include a 35% tax rate, 21/4% NSR royalty, minimal import duties, full repatriation of capital and profits and an accelerated depreciation rate. As well, the country has a mineral agreement with Cambior to start developing the Gros Rosebel gold mine late this year.

Canarc Resource Corp. is a growth-oriented, gold exploration and mining company listed on the TSX (symbol CCM) and the OTC-BB (symbol CRCUF). The Company's principle asset is its 100% interest in the 1.3 million oz New Polaris gold deposit located in northwestern British Columbia. Major shareholders include Barrick Gold Corp. and Echo Bay Mines Ltd.

On Behalf Of The Board Of Directors

CANARC RESOURCE CORP.

Bradford J. Cooke, President

The TSX Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release.