TORONTO, ONTARIO--William Resources Inc. ("William") is pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary Terra Mining AB has purchased from Hartikainen Oy the remaining 29.6 percent of the Finnish subsidiary Terra Mining Oy, which holds the operating Pahtavaara Mine and several exploration properties in Finland.

The Pahtavaara Mine, which commenced production in July 1996 is scheduled to produce 36,000 ounces of gold this year, at a cash cost of approximately US$274 per ounce, to be increased to over 50,000 ounces per year at a cost of US$250 per ounce. The Mine contains over 600,0000 ounces of gold in resources, of which proven and probable reserves are 1,824,000 tonnes of ore grading 3.06 g/t containing 179,000 ounces of gold. In addition, the Pahtavaara Mine includes a large land position around the operation, approximately 5,000 hectares, where exploration work is in progress to further enhance the resource base. The acquisition cost equates to US$19 per ounce of gold resource.

Terra Mining Oy holds several exploration projects in Finland, the most advanced of which is the Vatsa project in southern Finland, with a resource base presently estimated at 280,000 ounces. To date, over 30 holes have been drilled at Vatsa and a 20-50m wide shear zone has been identified with a strike length of over 800m, open at depths and along strike. Intersections of up to 6.5 g/t over 7m have been encountered with the top 40m of surface.

The acquisition of the 29.4 percent interest in Terra Mining Oy ensures that all gold producing mines and exploration properties in Sweden and Finland are wholly owned by WILLIAM and our shareholders can benefit from the anticipated significant growth in these projects. The land position in and around Pahtavaara and further exploration at Vatsa should lead to an increase of both the resources and production at competitive costs. Once the exploration work at Vatsa is completed, a feasibility will be done with the expectation that Vatsa could go into production as early as the year 2000.

WILLIAM is an intermediate size natural resource precious metals company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and Australian Stock Exchange. WILLIAM has operations in Europe (Bjorkdal - Sweden and Pahtavaara - Finland), Australia (Rustler's Roost - near Darwin and Ballarat - near Melbourne), and Latin America (Jacobina - Brazil and Velardena - Mexico). The Bjorkdal mine in Sweden is Europe's largest gold mine. Furthermore, WILLIAM provides engineering and contracting services to the international mining industry through the BLM Service Group.