Consultant Report Renders Robex Bullish on Barite.

SAINTE-FOY, Quebec--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 18, 1997--ROBEX RESOURCES (ME:RBX) Robex Resources Inc. holds 100 percent of the mining rights to the only known development-ready barite deposit in Eastern North America which is capable of immediate open-pit production.

After 10 years of effort and more than $2,500,000.00 of investment, Robex has confirmed a known deposit of almost one million tons of ore, grading 46.5 percent barite and 1.9 percent zinc at its orebody located at Upton, Quebec, just off Route 20 a short distance East of Montreal. Further resources are indicated.

Barite is an important commercial mineral with a variety of uses. It is utilized as an additive in production of some paint pigments, glass, plastic, rubber, adhesives, and paper. It is used in radiography ("the barium milkshake"). Expanding uses are as a packing material, as an additive in the fabrication of disc brakes, and as a screen for intense radiation mixed with cement mortar. The most significant barite "mud" is poured into deep wells to buoy up the drilling tools. Some 80 percent of Canada's barite consumption is for drilling muds. Canada imports about 25 percent of its annual requirements.

At present there are only three barite producers in Canada, in British Columbia, Ontario, and Nova Scotia respectively. The Nova Scotia facility produces almost exclusively pharmaceutical grade barite.

Of importance to Robex is the recent increase in intensity of drilling for oil and gas in Canada generally and more particularly the anticipated drilling contemplated in Eastern Canada and off the east cost, including the Hibernia project. These drilling activities have increased and will continue to increase the demand for barite.

Robex recently commissioned from an independant industrial mineral market consultant (the firm Comsortium of Sainte-Foy) a report canvassing the planned markets, the cost of putting the barite orebody into production and the profitability potential. That report dated October 1997 has just been received by Robex, with positive findings.

The report concludes in part:

"The resurgence of gas and oil exploration activity in North America creates a unique opportunity to put into production the barite orebody at Upton. Its strategic location confers to it a market advantage to supply a large part of the market which is developing in the Gulf (of St. Lawrence) and neighbouring regions with emphasis on development of the Hibernia field. The Upton orebody, capable of open-pit production and with its reserves of more than 15 years, constitutes the only orebody of extent known and ready to be put into production in Eastern North America."

The report notes that since the U.S. barite producers are concentrated in the Southwest U.S., and given increasing rail transportation costs, that there is export potential for Robex barite into the Eastern American markets, particularly where the weakness of the Canadian Dollar permits offering competitive prices.

In summation the Consultant's Report has concluded that a combination of factors have generated for Robex "a unique and positive business opportunity" to develop its barite deposit profitably. To that end encouraging negotiations are already in progress relative to financing and developing the Upton barite project.

Source: Jean-Louis Robert, President

CONTACT: Robex Resources Inc.

Gustave Fauteux, 514/656-9984

or

Robex Resources Inc.

J. Stewart Robertson, 613/392-2646