Toronto, Canada (October 31, 2000) – Sudbury Contact Mines Limited (Sudbury) is pleased to report on the first phase of its 2000 drilling program at it’s 60% owned Tonkin Springs project in Nevada (U.S. Gold Corporation –OTC-BB: USGL – 40%), including the discovery of new gold mineralization.

Initial drilling at Twin Peaks, the first target area outside of the mine corridor to be drilled this summer, has discovered a new area of gold mineralization. This area is located in the northern portion of the property and lies on trend between the established resource and previous mining operations at Tonkin Springs to the south and the world-class Pipeline Mine to the north.

To date, four holes have been drilled in the Twin Peaks area, two encountered gold mineralization within the same package of rocks that host other deposits in the mine corridor. In drill hole TP00003 gold occurs in a 245 ft. interval from 420 ft. to 665 ft., reporting consistently elevated values up to .037 opt gold. Anomalous gold values continued to the bottom of the hole at 1,000 ft. In drill hole TP00004 a 130 ft. interval between 435 ft. and 565 ft. reported values of up to .029 opt gold. Drilling in this area has resumed and will see four additional holes put down. The discovery of thick, highly anomalous gold zones in the same host rock as the other gold resources on the property and in the region, in a totally unexposed and previously unexplored area some nine miles away from previous Tonkin Springs drilling is considered geologically significant. As a result, the Tonkin Springs project has acquired more ground, leasing an additional ninety-one lode claims (The Coal Canyon Property) bringing the total property position to 39 square miles. The recently leased claims host the Tonkin ore bearing lithologies as well as the Roberts Mountains and Hanson Creek Formation, both of which are known ore hosts in the Cortez District located eight miles northwest of the Twin Peaks target. (Please see appended illustration for property location). In addition, northwest trending faults similar to those that control ore in the Pipeline, Cortez and Buckhorn areas pass through the Twin Peaks target and the recently acquired claims.

Drilling also continued within the mine corridor to expand the known gold resource. Ten of the thirteen holes drilled so far in this corridor encountered gold mineralization. This data has not yet been factored in to the current resource estimate of 1.4 million ounces. The following are the most notable results:

Also at this time the company is in the process of completing a scoping study on the existing TSP-1 resource of 1.4 million ounces of gold. The study will incorporate the latest metallurgical test results, which have indicated overall gold recoveries exceeding 80% on Tonkin Springs sulfide ores.

The press release may be downloaded in its entirety via the following:

www.agnico-eagle.com (Press Release)
http://files.newswire.ca/3/MAP1.pdf
http://files.newswire.ca/3/MAP2.pdf
http://files.newswire.ca/3/MAP3.pdf