Placer Dome to Earn 60% Interest in Canarc's Benzdorp Property in Suriname by Paying US$20.3 Million Cash and Delivering Positive Feasibility Study

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada,
November 13, 1997

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, November 13, 1997....Canarc Resource Corp. and Placer Dome (CLA) Limited are pleased to announce an agreement whereby Placer Dome can earn up to a 60% interest in Canarc�s Benzdorp property in southeastern Suriname. 

The option and joint venture agreement consists of two stages. The First Stage gives Placer Dome the right to earn a 51% interest in Benzdorp by: 

1. paying Canarc US$20.3 million, including US$300,000 on signing and a schedule of annual payments totaling US$20 million over 5 years;
2. spending US$3.5 million on exploration, including a minimum 3,000 meters of diamond drilling in Year 1 if Placer elects to proceed, and a schedule of annual work commitments over 3 years.

The Second Stage allows Placer Dome to acquire a further 9% interest over 3 years by delivering a positive feasibility study to Canarc. To increase their interest to 60%, Placer Dome's feasibility study must be in a form acceptable to a financial institution for the purpose of providing financing to both Canarc and Placer for a mine on the property.

For more details on this major transaction, Canarc is hosting a conference call today at 1:15 PST (4:15 EST). Phone 1-604-517-3400 and enter PIN# 1345 followed by the pound (#) key to participate.

Canarc owns a 100% interest in Benzdorp, subject to either a 20% net profits royalty or a floating 2 to 6.5% net smelter royalty held by a Suriname partner. Canarc and Placer have agreed to negotiate with the Suriname partner to acquire its royalty in Benzdorp. Placer at its
election, will advance the funds necessary for Canarc and Placer to execute the acquisition of the Suriname partner's royalty interest.

At 1380 km2 , Benzdorp is one of the largest mineral properties in the country. The Benzdorp property is also the most prolific gold producing region in all of Suriname, having produced over 1,000,000 oz. gold historically, including 500,000 oz. from bucket-line dredging and an estimated 500,000 oz. by porknocking (small scale hydraulic mining) of the extensive, gold rich alluvial placer deposits.

Over the past 18 months, Canarc has discovered several large and/or high grade gold prospects within a semi-continuous, gold mineralized belt 20 km long in the eastern-most part of the Benzdorp property. Virtually every creek draining this gold mineralized belt has been mined for gold. Canarc has now confirmed twelve gold soil anomalies, indicating the presence of multiple large lode gold source areas within volcanic, sedimentary and intrusive rocks of the favorable Guyana Shield greenstone belt.

Follow-up deep augering in four gold prospect areas has confirmed large gold mineralized zones now ready for drilling. The first drill target, JQA, averages almost 1 gpt gold over a 750 m long x 250 m wide area, open in all directions, based on 160 deep auger holes (10 to 15 m deep on average) and two long bulldozer trenches.

Geological mapping confirms that the JQA zone consists of intense quartz veins and stockworks in a diorite intrusion, indicating a "gold porphyry" style of mineralization. The diorite intrusion is at least 1 km wide by 1 km long and appears to be mineralized throughout. Our exploration target for JQA is a gold porphyry deposit of several hundred million tons grading 1.0 gpt.

Bulldozer trenching in the JQS zone 1 km south of the JQA anomaly has also confirmed strong gold mineralization in saprolite. Trench JQS-1 (trending east-west) recently returned 2.67 gpt over a 20 m width along the eastern edge of the JQS zone.

Another 700 m west of the JQA zone, across Pointu Creek, deep auger results in the JQW zone have identified gold mineralization and grades in diorite similar to the JQA zone.Whether the JQW mineralization is a separate body or simply a western extension of the JQA zone can only be tested by diamond drilling, as the intervening ground is covered by creek gravels.

Recent deep augering at the JQB target 1.5 km southeast of JQA has intersected very high grade, shear zone gold mineralization in quartz veins. One 2 metre interval assayed 788 gpt (duplicated by repeat assays), followed by 2 metres grading 38 gpt in the next interval.; Another hole bottomed in 2 m running 55 gpt gold and several holes returned 2 m intervals exceeding 5 gpt. Clearly, the potential for high grade shear zones is good but has not yet been systematically evaluated.

Stated Bradford Cooke, President and C.E.O. of Canarc, "We welcome Placer Dome into a joint venture on Benzdorp. Having a senior partner lends even more credibility to the potential for a significant gold discovery at Benzdorp. The joint venture should facilitate a much more aggressive exploration program than Canarc alone could mount."

Suriname has new mining legislation pending to attract foreign investors into the mining sector. Some attractive features of the new policy include a 35% tax rate, 2*% NSR royalty, minimal import duties, full repatriation of capital and profits and an accelerated depreciation rate. As well, the country has a mineral agreement with Cambior and Golden Star to develop the Gross Rosebel deposit, and over 80 years of uninterrupted bauxite mining.

Canarc Resource Corp. is a growth-oriented, international gold exploration and mining company with active projects worldwide. Major shareholders include Barrick Gold Corp. and Echo Bay Mines Ltd. The Company's common shares trade under the symbol "CCM" on the Toronto Stock Exchange as well as on the following exchanges: Vancouver: Vista-CCM, Frankfurt: Third Market Segment-CAN, Berlin: Over the Counter-CAN, NASD: Electronic Bulletin Board-CRCUF.