MINING MARKETS & INVESTMENT NEWS — The Northern Miner’s Mining Indices

This week we introduce our own indices of market performance in the mining sector: The Northern Miner North American Mining Index and The Northern Miner Small Producers Index both of which can be found on page 7.

* The North American Mining Index is calculated from a weighted average of the prices of 12 major North American metal producers. The companies selected for the index represent both gold and base metal producers in Canada and the U.S. To calculate the index figure, the producers’ prices, weighted by market capitalization, are compared against their closing prices on Sept. 30, 1998, the base date for the index. The index was set at 100 on Sept. 30.

* The Small Producers Index is calculated from a weighted average of the prices of 17 companies that have producing mines and market capitalizations between $20 million and $500 million. An added requirement is that the companies not be part of another mining index. These companies also have weightings proportional to their market capitalizations. The base date for the index is also Sept. 30, when it was set at 100.

THE NORTHERN MINER

NORTH AMERICAN MINING INDEX

1.Barrick Gold (ABX-T)7.Homestake Mining (HM-N)

2.Newmont Mining (NEM-N)8.Falconbridge (FL-T)

3.Noranda (NOR-T)9.Inco (N-T)

4.Placer Dome (PDG-T)10.Battle Mountain Gold (BMG-N)

5.Phelps Dodge (PD-N)11.Cyprus Amax (CYM-N)

6.Freeport-McMoRan (FCX-N)12.Asarco (AR-N)

THE NORTHERN MINER

SMALL PRODUCERS INDEX

1.Hecla Mining (HL-N)10.Geomaque (GEO-T)

2.Iamgold (IMG-T)11.Richmont Mining (RIC-T)

3.Sunshine Mining (SSC-N)12.McWatters Mining (MCW-T)

4.Vengold (VEN-T)13.Claude Resources (CRJ-T)

5.River Gold Mines (RIV-T)14.Imperial Metals (IPM-T)

6.Rayrock Yellowknife Mines (RAY-T)15.High River Gold (HRG-T)

7.Novicourt (NOV-T)16.North American Palladium (PDL-T)

8.Campbell Resources (CCH-T)17.Black Hawk Mining (BHK-T)

9.Alta Gold (ALTA-Q)