July 8, 2002

Canada’s Cameco Corporation reports that a pit wall failure occurred at its Kumtor mine site in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia. A Kyrgyz national employee is missing and presumed dead.

The incident occurred at 2:50 p.m. Monday, July 8, Kyrgyzstan time (2:50 a.m. Monday, CST) and involved an area of the open pit approximately 200 metres high. The missing employee is believed to be buried in the rock slide.

All mining operations have been stopped, the employee’s family has been notified and a rescue team continues to search. It is not known at this time when mine production will resume.

The Kumtor Operating Company has committed its cooperation in the investigation, to be conducted by the Ministry of Environment and Emergencies of the Kyrgyz Republic.

The Kumtor gold operation is owned two-thirds by the government of Kyrgyzstan and one-third by Cameco and is located in the Tien-Shan mountains. The mine employs about 1,500 people.

Cameco, with its head office in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, is the world’s largest uranium supplier and a gold producer. Cameco’s shares trade on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges.