Argentina Gold Shareholders Resoundingly Reject Barrick Offer

Business Wire, Jan 11, 1999

VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 11, 1999--Argentina Gold(VSE:ARP.) Argentina Gold Corp. ("Argentina Gold") have been advised that Barrick Gold Corporation ("Barrick") has extended its Cdn.$4.00 per share take-over bid for all of the shares of Argentina Gold until 12:01 a.m. January 19, 1999, after Barrick failed to acquire 50.1 percent of the outstanding shares, one of the conditions of its bid. Although Barrick has refused to disclose how many Argentina Gold shares, if any, were tendered to its bid, Argentina Gold believes that very few shares, if any, were tendered. The board of directors and management of Argentina Gold wish to publicly thank shareholders of Argentina Gold for recognizing the total inadequacy of Barrick's opportunistic and coercive offer by resoundingly rejecting it and strongly recommend that shareholders continue to reject the Barrick offer.

Argentina Gold did not initiate this unsolicited offer from Barrick. The timing during the Christmas and New Year's holiday period and in the early stages of one of the most successful exploration programs at Argentina Gold's Veladero project in Argentina was engineered by Barrick to prevent Argentina Gold shareholders from receiving fair value for their shares. In assessing the potential of the Veladero project and its importance to Barrick, Argentina Gold notes with interest that Barrick down-played the importance of Veladero in enhancing the value of Barrick's Pasqua project in its take-over bid circular. In this regard, Argentina Gold would encourage all of its shareholders and all of Barrick's shareholders to obtain a copy of an independent analysis prepared by CIBC Wood Gundy dated December 15, 1998 which provides a strikingly different view on this issue.

Argentina Gold currently has two reverse circulation and two diamond drill rigs operating on the Veladero project and shareholders can expect a constant flow of what management are confident will be exciting exploration results over the next several weeks and months. Your management will also continue to explore aggressively all options available to Argentina Gold to maximize shareholder value. Argentina Gold strongly believes that its shareholders' continued faith in management will be richly rewarded over the next weeks and months.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD J. Patricio Jones, President

The Vancouver Stock Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.