Cumberland Resources: Meadowbank Gold Project: 1997 Drilling Program Underway.

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 10, 1997-- CUMBERLAND RES. (TSE: CBD.) CUMBERLAND RESOURCES LTD. reports the commencement of the 1997 drilling program on the Company's 60 percent owned and operated Meadowbank Gold Project (40 percent Comaplex Minerals Corp.) located 47 miles north of the community of Baker Lake in the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut.

The planned $2.77 million, two phase (11,000m) drill program is designed to expand the current global resource base of the project which stands at 1.1 million oz. (1.39 million oz. uncut).* The target resource for the 1997 drill initiative is 1.5 million oz. (cut) or an additional 400,000 oz. at which point the Company has determined the project may yield a positive pre-feasibility study.

Aggressive drill programs over the past two seasons have expanded global resources from approximately 200,000 oz. gold to over 1.1 million oz.-cut (1.39 million oz. uncut). This global resource is located in three separate, shallow zones along a 3 km trend. Drilling, to date, has tested only shallow levels of the trend with the deepest holes at 225 meters vertically. -0-

                       RESOURCE SUMMARY

Zone         Tonnage (tonnes)   Grade (g/tonne)      Ounces

Third Portage  3,384,430        6.53 g/tonne (cut)   710,560
Deposit  (73 drillholes; 77 percent at 20m spacings, 22
          percent at 40m spacings; 2 g/tonne minimum grade
          cut-off over minimum 2m)  xx

Goose Island    976,834         11.46 g/tonne (cut)   359,774
Deposit                         or
                976,834         19.18 g/tonne (uncut) 602,412
    (37 drillholes at 50m spacings; 5 g/tonne minimum
          grade cut-off over minimum 2m)

North Portage   259,185          9.31 g/tonne          77,606 Zone
  (8 drillholes at 50 m spacings; 5 g/tonne minimum
         grade cut-off over   minimum 2m)

TOTAL GLOBAL RESOURCES                 1,147,940 oz. (cut)
                                       1,390,578 oz. (uncut)

x - Cutting is the practice of normalizing very high gold assays. Cutting is an industry accepted practice and the Company generally presents both cut (to 1 oz.) and uncut resources for general information.

xx - Cut-off grades are derived from preliminary engineering studies at Meadowbank examining potential mining techniques and their associated costs. Phase I of the 1997 drill program will test for depth extensions of the Goose Island and Third Portage deposits as well as evaluate the intervening 600 meters separating the deposits at depths approaching 400 m below surface. A Phase II program is planned for the summer months to evaluate the extensive potential in the North Portage Area where a smaller resource remains open for continued expansion.

Third Portage Deposit - Preliminary Engineering

An independent preliminary engineering study of the Third Portage Deposit has been completed by the Simons Mining Group and was limited to resource modelling and the potential for open pit mining of the Third Portage deposit. While the study is preliminary and limited to available coarse technical data, several important aspects are evident. Resource calculations derived from the 73 diamond drill holes and over 3900 individual fire assays across the 700m length of the deposit yielded:

         TOTAL RESOURCE         GRADE           OUNCES
         x 3,384,430 tonnes     6.53 g/tonne    710,560
         x undiluted, cut to 1 oz. (5 composites), minimum 2g
cut-off over minimum 2m.
         Resource classification, or confidence levels, yielded
very high percentages of the resource in the highest confidence
category:


Class      Tonnage       Grade       Ounces     Ore
           (tonnes)      (g/t)                 (percent)
RTYPE 1  2,614,710        6.58       553,460     77.26
RTYPE 2    753,020        6.38       154,050     22.25
RTYPE 3     16,700        5.68         3,050      0.49

TOTAL    3,384,430        6.53       710,560    100.00

RTYPE 1 = 0 to 20m distance to nearest composite
RTYPE 2 = 20 to 40m distance to nearest composite
RTYPE 3 = greater than 40m distance to nearest composite

For a preliminary analysis of the open-pit potential of the Third Portage Deposit six models were optimized using variable gold prices ($350 to $400 per oz) and variable mining costs ($1.50 to $2.00 per tonne), reflecting both conservative and optimistic potential scenarios.

Pit         Gold Price   Mining    Tonnage   Grade   Strip
Run          ($ US)    cost/tonne  (tonnes)  (g/t)   Ratio
Pit - BK1      350        2.00    3,194,070  6.59    6.6:1
Pit - BK2      375        2.00    3,246,280  6.53    7.1:1
Pit - BK3      400        2.00    3,225,790  6.55    7.0:1
Pit - BK4      350        1.50    3,205.280  6.58    7.0:1
Pit - BK5      375        1.50    3,223,670  6.55    7.0:1
Pit - BK6      400        1.50    3,242,020  6.54    7.1:1

Maximum potential pit depth is approximately 105 m below surface and the bulk of the higher grade material is located in the upper 60m of the deposit. The resource recovered in each of these scenarios represents a significant proportion of the currently identified total resource of (3,384,430 t at 6.53 g/t) and is not significantly affected by the wide range of gold prices and mining costs used in the study.

The Company is encouraged by this preliminary analysis of the Third Portage deposit. Although engineering studies are at an early stage, important factors such as grade distribution, geometry of the ore, early stage assessment of the proposed mining method, and percentage of the ore potentially open-pittable at Third Portage have yielded positive scenarios. The Company will now concentrate on expansion of the global resources (including Third Portage, Goose Island and North Portage areas) on the project which is required to meet a potential economic threshold. Further engineering studies will be initiated over the course of the exploration season in anticipation of subsequent pre-feasibility studies if resource goals are achieved.

Cumberland Resources is a Canadian mineral exploration company with two emerging gold projects, Meadowbank (60 percent) and Meliadine (50 percent) located in the Northwest Territories. Cumberland is also actively exploring for base-metals in the N.W.T., Northwestern Ontario and Portugal. Shares Issued: 19,591,581 Fully Diluted: 22,782,501 Working Capital: $14 million

Emerging Canadian Gold Projects

Meadowbank (60 percent and Operator)

- 1.1 million oz. (cut) resource - $2.77 million, 11,000m drill program underway

Meliadine East (50 percent and Operator) - 400,000 oz. resource

- 3,000m drill program planned for July start

Meliadine West (20 percent carried to production) - wide spaced drilling indicates potential for greater than 1 million oz. resource

- WMC International Ltd. on site to commence a $3 million, 20,000m drill program

NOTE: Location map available from the Company at the phone number listed below. CUMBERLAND RESOURCES LTD. Kerry M. Curtis, B.Sc., P.Geo.

Vice President, Corporate Development

CONTACT: Cumberland Resources Ltd.

Mr. Glen Dickson, 604/608-2557, 604/608-2559 (FAX)

Mr. Kerry Curtis, 604/608-2557, 604/608-2559 (FAX)