Canarc Options Kwitaro Property in Guyana to Cyprus Amax; Large Rich Gold Anomaly to be Explored and Drilled

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada,
October 15, 1997

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, October 15, 1997....Canarc Resource Corp. is pleased to announce that it has optioned the Kwitaro property located in southern Guyana (see Location Map enclosed) to Cyprus Amax Minerals Company.  The Kwitaro property (which includes a large, rich stream sediment gold anomaly) covers a newly discovered gold area that Cyprus Amax plans to explore and drill. 

Cyprus can initially earn a 50% interest in Kwitaro from Canarc by paying US$150,000, spending US$2,000,000 and meeting Canarc's underlying cash and work obligations on the property over a 4 year period.  After vesting a 50% interest, Cyprus can then earn an additional 20% interest (70% total) by funding a bankable feasibility study and either paying Canarc US$5,000,000  or funding Canarc's share of production financing.  In the latter case, Cyprus would recoup Canarc's share of production financing from 90% of Canarc's production cash flow. 

Canarc holds a 100% interest in Kwitaro, under option from a Guyanese company, whereby the company must pay US$110,000, issue 200,000 shares and spend US$600,000 over 3 years.  Kwitaro is a medium scale mining license that covers 7,720 hectares over an area 11.4 km long by 9.1 km wide. 

There is no recorded history of exploration or mining at Kwitaro.  However, it is located only 45 km northeast along trend from the Marudi Mountain property where Sutton Resources previously drilled off a 675,000 oz. gold deposit. 

Most recently, a systematic stream sediment pan concentrate sampling  program has discovered a large, rich gold anomaly at Kwitaro (see Pan Concentrate Map attached).  The main gold anomaly trends 6.5 km long by 1.8 km wide, averaging 10.0 gpt gold in pan concentrates, (42 samples) over a background average of less than 0.05 gpt gold (60 samples).  The top 10 samples actually average 29.46 gpt with peak values up to 59.93 gpt gold! 

The gold anomaly appears to lie within the same lower Proterozoic greenstone belt that hosts the Marudi Mountain gold deposit.  This iron formation style of gold deposit (another example is the 45 million oz. Homestake mine in South Dakota) appears to be an appropriate exploration model for gold mineralization at Kwitaro. 

Cyprus proposes an initial US$200,000 exploration program in 1998 to confirm the high grade core of the gold anomaly by sediment and soil sampling and test it by diamond drilling. 

Stated Bradford Cooke, President and CEO of Canarc, "We are gratified to welcome Cyprus Amax on board as our senior partner at Kwitaro.  Their plan to fast-track exploration at the property and drill-test the gold anomaly in 1998 is certainly attractive to Canarc. 

"Cyprus has also agreed to option another property in Canarc's portfolio, subject to due diligence.  We hope this will lead to a long and prosperous business relationship with Cyprus Amax." 

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.