Mineral Resources Corporation-Chrysotile Reclamation Project at Cassiar, B.C. -- Phase I of plant to be commissioned in the Fall.

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 29, 1997--Mineral Resources Co. (TSE:MIC.) Mineral Resources Corporation (MRC) today announced that B.C. Chrysotile (BCCC) will be commissioning a newly constructed plant at Cassiar in the fall to reprocess chrysotile fibres from the tailings of the exhausted open pit mine.

Clifford Frame, Chairman of Mineral Resources, which owns 100% of B.C. Chrysotile Corp., said, "The Cassiar property was acquired in 1994 because the Company recognized the significant reserves and economic potential of the semi-processed Chrysotile in the abandoned tailings."

To date, Mineral Resources has spent $4.6 million on acquisition, site preparation and Phase I of the reprocessing plant, with a further $1.7 million to complete the construction. When the wet processing plant, which uses technology developed at Australian coal and Newfoundland asbestos reclamation projects, opens in the fall, it will produce fibre at a rate of approximately 12,000 tons per year. It will also quantify operating parameters for Phase II, and re-establish Cassiar's products in the marketplace. The additional investment will be of $10 to $12 million to expand the plant to a capacity of 50,000 tons of fibre per year. The projected life of the reclamation project is about 12 years, with production costs of $350 per ton, and an average market value for the product of $700 per ton. "Cassiar chrysotile has always been the first choice of supply for customers because of its unique physical properties which include better re-enforcing strength, fast filtration, and lack of iron content," said Frame. "The type of chrysotile mined at Cassiar is not amphilole based nor does it contain tremolite. Prior operations at Cassiar did not incur a single asbestos related compensation case during its 37 year production history."

"Chrysotile fibres remain in high demand as markets have stabilized and prices have risen 20% in the past five years. In fact a shortage of good quality mineral fibre, as is available at Cassiar, is becoming apparent," adds Frame.

Kilborn Engineering prepared a due diligence study of the Cassiar reclamation project in 1993, with two reviews in 1995 and 1997. BCCC anticipate that following the successful reclamation project and after all environmental due process, underground reserves, which contain over $2.0 billion worth of fibres, could be developed to bring production up the Cassiar mine's former level of 100,000 tons per year. The fibres from the primary ore have grade and quality specifications that are unmatched elsewhere in the world, and they will be processed at Cassiar's former dry mill that will require only modest rehabilitation. The wet mill will continue processing both existing and newly generated tailings when such expansion occurs.

Frame said that BCCC also controls large deposits of undeveloped chrysotile reserves in the Kutcho Creek area of B.C., and with the reversal of false perceptions about mineral fibres and the depletion of alternate reserves elsewhere, BCCC could become a world supplier of high quality chrysotile fibre in the long term.

The focus of Mineral Resources is to develop mineral properties into production and has recently advanced the predevelopment of significant projects in coal, gold, antinomy, manganese, copper, chrysotile and base metals in several countries.

The shares of Mineral Resources are listed on The Toronto Stock Exchange and trade under the symbol MIC.

CONTACT: Mineral Resources Corporation

416/860-0814