Kumtor Gold Mine Achieves Commercial Production

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, June 5, 1997

Cameco Corporation today reports that the Kumtor gold operation has achieved commercial production with a declared start date of May 1, 1997.

Kumtor Operating Company, the project operator, is satisfied the mill plant commissioning is complete and that the mill has achieved the designed throughput capacity. Cumulative 1997 production to the end of April was 78,843 ounces. Production in May was 55,348 ounces.

"We are extremely pleased to reach this milestone in the history of the Kumtor project," said Bernard Michel, Cameco's chair, president and chief executive officer, noting production from the 14,500-tonne-per-day mill is currently projected to exceed 400,000 ounces during 1997-its first year of operation. It is scheduled to rise to more than 500,000 ounces annually over the life of the project.

Kumtor contains an estimated 9 million ounces of reserves and is located at an altitude of 4,000 metres in the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia. It is owned two-thirds by the government of Kyrgyzstan and one-third by Cameco. Kumtor Operating Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cameco.

Cameco, with its head office in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, is the world's largest publicly traded uranium company and a growing gold producer. Its uranium products are used to generate electricity in nuclear power plants around the world, providing one of the cleanest sources of energy available today.

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