FOR RELEASE OCTOBER 4, 2005

For further information, please contact:
Walter J. "Skip" Scott, Jr.
DIAMOND MCCARTHY TAYLOR FINLEY & LEE, L.L.P.
1201 Elm Street, Suite 3400
Dallas, Texas 75270
Direct: (214) 389-5337
Fax: (214) 389-5399
www.diamondmccarthy.com

Philippine Provincial Government Sues Multinational Mining Giant for Destroying Environment

Las Vegas, Nevada - October 4, 2005. The Philippine Province of Marinduque today filed suit in Nevada seeking to hold multinational mining giant Placer Dome Inc. (PDG) accountable for damaging its environment, its economy, and the health of its citizens during decades of mining operations on the island of Marinduque. "We are resolved to see that Placer Dome answers for what it has done to our island and its people," said Governor Carmencita Reyes of Marinduque, who traveled from the Philippines to Nevada for the filing of the suit. "It is like a hit-and-run, but worse because it is so premeditated. Placer Dome does all of these terrible things to undermine and destroy our homeland - circumventing, coercing, manipulating and deceiving us with lies and empty promises. Then, in the face of inevitable calamity, it does a disappearing act so no one is left to answer for it in the Philippines - leaving our poor people to chase it and struggle for help."

A Natural Haven Violated
According to its inch-thick lawsuit, the Province of Marinduque is comprised of the small heart-shaped island of Marinduque, together with smaller outlying islands resting near the midpoint of the Philippine archipelago. It is a place where some 200,000 Filipinos live a basic life reminiscent of a bygone era. That life has been tragically altered by hundreds of millions of tons of toxic mine tailings and ground-up waste rock.

Like much of the Philippines, Marinduque is portrayed as being blessed (or cursed) with rich mineral deposits. For more than 30 years, Vancouver-based Placer Dome allegedly parlayed a clandestine partnership with Ferdinand Marcos, the Philippines' notoriously corrupt former dictator, to profit handsomely from copper and gold extracted out of huge open-pit mines gouged into the island's mountainous interior. In those years, Placer Dome is said to have used those profits to transform itself from a junior Canadian mining company into what it now proudly proclaims to be the fifth largest gold mining company in the world - with a market value of more than $8 billion. In those same years, though, Marinduque was transformed from a once nationally protected nature preserve into an international environmental tragedy.

The lawsuit describes once vibrant forests, river basins and coral reefs now smothered by tailings laden with high concentrations of arsenic, cadmium, lead, manganese, nickel and sulfate. A November 2000 New Scientist article says that so much mine waste has been deposited into just Calancan Bay that dump trucks filled with the tailings, and placed bumper-to-bumper, would completely encircle the world three times. Indeed, where once water flowed, Marinduque claims a landing strip-like causeway of tailings now visibly protrudes several miles out into the bay. Elsewhere, bursting dams and drainage tunnels are said to have suddenly spewed millions of tons of acidic and metal enriched mine wastes over downstream rivers and lands, destroying the now choked rivers and nearby homes, crops and livestock. Everywhere, the tailings allegedly continue to pollute the flora, fauna and populace of the island, the coastal shores and bays, and the open seas.

Placer Dome's Exodus
While the tailings remain, Placer Dome is nowhere to be found now on Marinduque or in the Philippines. Marinduque says Placer Dome pulled out when the mine was shut down shortly after the drainage tunnel disaster left the island in a nationally declared State of Calamity. While it is claimed that Placer Dome has since collected millions in insurance coverage, Marinduque reportedly has struggled in the aftermath to cope with the mess and chase Placer Dome down in the face of corporate diversions and subterfuge. As Catherine Coumans of the industry watchdog MiningWatch Canada has described it, Placer Dome "dumped its tailings, then dumped its shares, and then dumped its responsibility."

Marinduque's future remains grim. Recent assessments by Oxfam Australia and the United States Geological Survey paint a distressing picture of existing damage and still imminent and potentially catastrophic threats to health, life and property from several increasingly dilapidated mine structures retaining tons of more tailings.

The Lawsuit
Marinduque's lawsuit represents a growing trend in cross-border legal actions to redress environmental damages involving multinational companies. With Placer Dome having left the Philippines, Marinduque has followed them to Nevada where they certainly can now be found. Placer Dome currently maintains significant interests in three major mining operations in Nevada (and recently announced plans for another) that collectively accounted for about 17% of its more than $6 billion in revenues in 2004.

In the lawsuit, Marinduque seeks an undetermined amount for: repairing and reinforcing deteriorating mine structures representing imminent threats of repeated disasters; cleaning up and rehabilitating already polluted lands, rivers and coastal shores and bays; compensating economic losses including destroyed property, diminished livelihoods and related expenses; and payment for lost lives and ongoing health problems. Oxfam and the United States Geological Survey have separately estimated the cost of cleaning up just some of Marinduque's rivers - setting aside Calancan Bay and compensatory damages - at well over $100 million.

Representing Marinduque is a team of attorneys spearheaded by Diamond McCarthy Taylor Finley & Lee, L.L.P., a Texas-based litigation boutique experienced in cross-border disputes, and Snell & Wilmer, L.L.P., a firm with over 400 attorneys in six offices throughout the Western United States, including Las Vegas, Nevada. Skip Scott of Diamond McCarthy said: "You cannot come away from Marinduque without being deeply moved and incensed by the sheer devastation and callous disregard for life and property. The people there are honest farmers and fisher-folk that depend upon the land, rivers and marine life for their livelihood. They deserve justice."