PRIVATE PLACEMENT: Kinross taking share of Red Back Mining

VANCOUVER - Kinross Gold of Toronto is investing $600 million for a 9.4% share of Vancouver's Red Back Mining, which owns the Tasiast gold mine in Mauritania and the Chirano gold mine in Ghana. The deal involves a private placement of 24 million common shares of Red Back at a price of $25 per share.

Red Back intends to use the proceeds of the placement for general working capital purposes, including expansion of the Tasiast mine and processing facilities. As the resource base there is growing, the company has already begun studying boosting the mill throughput from 1.0 million t/y to 2.5 t/y. At that rate the operation would produce more than 200,000 oz of gold per year.

The Tasiast mine is a conventional truck and shovel operation. The treatment plant includes three-stage crushing, ball milling, a six-stage carbon-in-leach circuit, electrowinning and smelting.

Technical reports on the Tasiast project are posted at www.RedBackMining.com.