Washington Group International Awarded Contract For Site Development and Mining at Mexican Gold Mine

Business Wire, Jan 12, 2004

Business Editors

BOISE, Idaho--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 12, 2004

Washington Group International, Inc. (Nasdaq:WGII) announced today that it has been awarded a contract by Metallica Resources Inc. (TSX:MR)(AMEX:MRB) to provide site development services and contract mining for the Cerro San Pedro gold/silver mine in central Mexico. The revenue to Washington Group over the life of the mine is approximately $105 million.

"We are pleased to be chosen by Metallica to participate in the development and operation of the Cerro San Pedro Mine," said Roy Wilkes, President of the Washington Group Mining Business Unit. "We have worked with the Metallica management team for several months in optimizing the development plan and are excited about getting this project underway."

Washington Group will begin site development on the mine, leach pad, and infrastructure immediately, with contract mining following by mid-summer 2004.

"We are pleased to be moving forward on this long-awaited project with Washington Group," said Richard Hall, President and Chief Executive Officer of Metallica.

Washington Group has worked in the Latin American mining industry for many years. Projects include ongoing contract mining at the Paso Diablo and Mina Norte coal mines in Venezuela; development work at the Refugio and Sipan gold mines in Peru; and the Cerrejon Coal Project, a $2 billion design-procure-construct undertaking in Colombia. The company presently operates coal, precious metals, industrial minerals, and base metals mines in the United States, Canada, Germany, and Venezuela and provides mine engineering services to clients worldwide.

Washington Group International, Inc. provides the talent, innovation, and proven performance to deliver integrated engineering, construction, and management solutions for businesses and governments worldwide.

With approximately 27,000 employees at work in over 40 states and more than 30 countries, the company provides professional, scientific, management, and development services in more than two dozen major markets.

Markets Served

Included among those markets are: Power generation, transmission and distribution, and clean air solutions; environmental remediation; heavy civil construction; mining; nuclear services; defense, homeland security and global threat reduction; industrial, gas, chemical, and pharmaceutical processing; manufacturing; facilities operations and management; transportation; and water resources.

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the private securities litigation reform act of 1995, which are identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as may, will, could, should, expect, anticipate, intend, plan, estimate, or continue or the negative thereof or other variations thereof. Such forward-looking statements are necessarily based on various assumptions and estimates and are inherently subject to various risks and uncertainties, including risks and uncertainties relating to the possible invalidity of the underlying assumptions and estimates and possible changes or developments in social, economic, business, industry, market, legal, and regulatory circumstances and conditions and actions taken or omitted to be taken by third parties, including the corporation's customers, suppliers, business partners, and competitors and legislative, regulatory, judicial, and other governmental authorities and officials.