August 1, 2002

News Release: 1,513 Carats Sold for an Average Price of US$592 per Carat

Etruscan Resources Inc. (EET-TSX) and Mountain Lake Resources Inc. jointly announced that diamond sales from contract mining operations on one of the four concessions on the Mooi River property in the Republic of South Africa for the period March 2002 to June 2002 were US$895,500. A total of 1,513 carats were sold for an average price of US$592 per carat, reflecting the gemstone quality of the alluvial diamonds. Under the terms of the contract mining agreement, Mountain Ash (Pty.) Limited which is owned 75% by Etruscan and 25% by Mountain Lake, receives a 15% gross royalty from the operations. Alluvial diamond deposits occur in gravel runs on the four concessions that comprise the Mooi River property, and on the three concessions on the Ventersdorp property, which is situated 43 kilometers west of Mooi River. The diamonds recovered from these deposits command premium sales prices on the order of US$400-600 per carat by virtue of their size and quality. In comparison, sales prices for the eight South African diamond-mining operations of De Beers typically range from US$46 to US$228 per carat(1) with an average of US$70 per carat. In Canada, diamonds recovered from the Ekati mine fetch between US$34 and US$168 per carat(2).

At Mooi River and Ventersdorp, alluvial diamonds in excess of 5 carats represent approximately 20% of the carats recovered from the deposits. Approximately 60% of the recovered carats come from stones weighing between 1-5 carats. The three largest stones recovered during this 4 month period from Mooi River weighed 18.96 carats, 15.5 carats and 11.5 carats. The 18.96 carat stone sold for US$5,000 per carat. Gem quality diamonds have been recovered from prospect pits along the entire 11 kilometer length of the Mooi River gravel run. The largest recorded stone recovered to date from Ventersdorp weighed 27.9 carats. All of these diamonds have been produced by small-scale contractors typically operating at rates between 200 and 1,500 tonnes per day.

Mountain Ash has a full-scale commercial processing facility under construction at Ventersdorp and scheduled to go into operation in September of this year at rate of 4,000 tonnes per day, with the capacity to expand to 8,000 tonnes per day. This mining operation will be 100% owned and operated by Mountain Ash. Progress reports on the construction can be viewed at Etruscan's website at http://www.etruscan.com. The common shares of Etruscan are traded on The TSX Exchange under the symbol "EET". The common shares of Mountain Lake are traded on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "MOA".

(1) De Beers Production Statistics 2000, www.debeersgroup.com (2) The Northern Miner, February 4-10, 2002

TEL: (902) 798-9701 Etruscan Resources Inc.
FAX: (902) 798-9702 Richard Gordon, Investor Relations
TEL: (416) 368-0882 Etruscan Resources Inc.
FAX: (416) 367-3638 Tony Hayes, Vice President
TEL: (902) 542-9773 Mountain Lake Resources Inc.
FAX: (902) 542-4442 Allen Sheito, President and CEO
TEL: (902) 420-1990 Mountain Lake Resources Inc.
FAX: (902) 429-1171 Frank Metcalf, QC, Director

WEBSITE This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.