Crown Resources Gold Project Wins Major Court Victory.

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 6, 1999--Crown Resources Corp. today announced that it won a major victory in U.S. Federal District Court on its Crown Jewel project in Washington state.

The court affirmed the decision of the U.S. Forest Service on the adequacy of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) and the Record of Decision. The court granted all motions for summary judgement on behalf of the U.S. Forest Service and Battle Mountain Gold Company, while denying all motions of the plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs, consisting of environmental and special interest groups, alleged that the U.S. Forest Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act, the Organic Administration Act and various trust obligations. The Plaintiffs sought declaratory and injunctive relief from the court in the form of an order directing the U.S. Forest Service to withdraw the Record of Decision, revise its analysis in the FEIS, and issue a new Record of Decision based on the revised FEIS. All these motions were denied.

Christopher E. Herald, President of Crown, stated: "This ruling represents a major step in the Crown Jewel project moving forward to production. The decision affirms the adequacy of the project's environmental review and the measures taken to protect the environment, and removes the uncertainty of federal environmental litigation."

The Crown Jewel gold deposit contains approximately 1.6 million ounces of gold at an average grade of 0.185 ounces of gold per ton. Battle Mountain Gold Company is earning a 54% interest in the project by providing 100% of the funding, without any repayment from Crown, to place the property into production at a minimum rate of 3,000 tons per day. Average life of mine cash costs are estimated at $160 per ounce. Average annual production rates are forecast at approximately 185,000 ounces of gold, with Crown retaining a 46% interest in this production.

Crown is a U.S. domiciled gold exploration company with properties in the U.S. and Mexico and a 57%-equity interest in Solitario Resources Corporation (SLR:Toronto Stock Exchange). Crown is traded on the NASDAQ National Market System under the trading symbol CRRS and the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol CRO.

The information set forth above includes "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and is subject to the safe harbor created by those sections. Factors that could cause results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the timing of receipt of necessary governmental permits, the market price of gold, results of current exploration activities and other risk factors detailed in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings.