Crown Jewel Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement released; patenting process makes major advance

Business Wire, June 21, 1995

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 21, 1995--Crown Resources Corp. announced that the long-awaited Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Crown Jewel Project has been released to interested public parties.

This 1,000-page, two-volume document is the culmination of a three-year effort by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the Washington State Department of Ecology, the co-lead agencies in the environmental assessment of the Crown Jewel mine site. Crown anticipates that official receipt of the DEIS will be published in the June 30, 1995, edition of the Federal Registry which will then begin the 60-day DEIS Public Comment Period.

Crown is confident that the Crown Jewel Project will have minimal impact on the environment and, in situations where there are projected impacts, that they can be mitigated. In the DEIS, the USFS has indicated a preference for an alternative that is similar to what was originally proposed by the project proponents.

The Crown Jewel Project is held in a joint venture between Crown (46%) and Battle Mountain Gold Co. (54% and operator). The Crown Jewel gold deposit currently stands at 9.1 million tons of ore grading 0.182 ounces of gold per ton containing 1.66 million ounces of gold. In the absence of significant permitting delays, Battle Mountain anticipates a 1997 start-up date for the Crown Jewel Project.

In addition to the DEIS release, the joint venture has been notified that the Secretary of Interior, Bruce Babbitt, has signed the "first-half final certificate mineral patent application" covering approximately 196 acres of lode claims at the Crown Jewel Project in northeastern Washington. The patent application will now be returned to the Washington state office of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for a mineral examination which is the final step in the process before patents are granted. Under all the hardrock mining reform legislation currently being considered by Congress, patented claims are exempt from federal royalties.

Crown and Battle Mountain have spent in excess of $25 million in exploration and engineering in support of the patent application. Already, the Crown Jewel Project has generated hundreds of man-years of work for those involved in the process. An average workforce of 150, over a minimum 10-year period, will be required to construct, operate and reclaim the Crown Jewel project site.

Crown is listed on the NASDAQ National Market System under the trading symbol CRRS and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol CRO.

CONTACT: Crown Resources Corp., Denver

Christopher E. Herald, 303/295-2171

Debbie W. Mino, 800/229-6827 or 713/682-4070