News Releases

• Don Coxe, Strategy Advisor, to host conference call for media live from BMO's Metals & Mining conference
• Coxe, known for his long-term analysis of the resources sector, is keynote speaker at this year's event
• Industry leaders from six continents attending one of the largest metals and mining investor conferences in the world

TORONTO, March 2, 2010 - Join Don Coxe, Strategy Advisor, BMO Capital Markets, on Wednesday, March 3, at 9 a.m. EST, for a discussion about his long-term outlook for the metals & mining sector.

Mr. Coxe, who is set to deliver a keynote address at BMO's annual global mining event in Florida, will discuss highlights of his most recent Basic Points report. Entitled "Hard Rocks and Hard Shocks," Mr. Coxe looks at how much has changed for the hard and soft rock industries due to the emergence of China and India as the driving forces of the global economy and, secondly, the international financial crisis and recession.

"We remain bullish on the longer-term outlook for commodities and the shares of the commodity-oriented companies," said Mr. Coxe. "But the fragile financial state of many major governments and banks means that we must consider the implications for investment assets at a time when investors are beginning to look forward with trepidation to the time when the flows of what we call 'financial heroin' will slow down before drying up."

During the media conference call, Mr. Coxe will be summing up his impressions from the pubic presentations at the conference and from his many discussions with attendees. "In my view, this is one of the world's most important mining conferences, and it comes at a time when investors are raising major questions about the future for the industry," said Mr. Coxe.

Among those are:

1. Are publicly-traded industrial metal prices in a bubble because of zero-cost money?
2. Is gold a store of value or a speculation? With soaring deficits at a time of the lowest interest rates in living memory, does gold become more than the inverse of the dollar?
3. Have the big diversified mining companies run out of base metal ore bodies in politically-secure countries- causing them to diversify into fertilizers?
4. Now that Rio Tinto and BHP found that governments could block their merger, will the big companies decide to grow by buying smaller companies with large reserves?
5. Will government-owned and sovereign wealth companies take over the mining industry as they have the oil industry?
6. If the U.S. and Europe relapse into a double-dip recession, will prices of metals and mines collapse anew?

What:
Don Coxe, Strategy Advisor, BMO Capital Markets, to host conference call for members of the media only. Mr. Coxe will give listeners a feel for this industry - which he believes is more important to the global economy now, than it has been for many decades.

Q&A to follow the discussion

When:
Wednesday, March 3, 2010, at 9 a.m. EST

Dial-In Information:

About Don Coxe:
Since 1992, Don Coxe has been analyzing and making recommendations on global markets for clients of BMO through the monthly journal Basic Points. Mr. Coxe has more than 35 years of institutional investment experience in Canada and the U.S. As Strategy Advisor, BMO Capital Markets and Chairman, Coxe Advisors LLC, he continues to follow global capital markets, and write and speak for investors. Ranked No. 1 in 2007 and 2008 by Canadian institutional investors in the Brendan Wood survey*, he has been top ranked for many years. In 2008, Mr. Coxe was the recipient of the National Post / StarMine lifetime achievement award for excellence in investment research. Author of the book, The New Reality of Wall Street (McGraw Hill, 2003), he has written regular columns for The Globe and Mail, National Post, Maclean's and Canadian Business. Before he began institutional investing, he served as Associate Editor of National Review magazine in New York, and practiced law in Toronto.

*Source: Brendan Wood International - 2008 Canadian Institutional Equity Research, Sales & Trading Performance Report

About BMO's Metals & Mining Conference
A record 1,300 people are registered to attend the 19^th annual BMO Capital Markets Global Metals & Mining Conference, one of the largest events in the world for metals and mining investors. The event is being held from February 28 to March 3 in Hollywood, Florida.

The three-day conference is being hosted by BMO's Metals & Mining Equity Research team. With 10 dedicated metals and mining analysts in Toronto, London, and Denver, the BMO team collectively covers more than 125 companies, making it one of the largest mining research efforts in the world.

A list of participating companies and an up-to-the-minute agenda* with presentation times for the conference are available on the web site: www.bmocm.com/conferences/metalsandmining2010
* Agenda subject to change.

Members of the media are required to register directly with BMO's Media Relations Group prior to the conference to gain access to presentations that will be webcast.

About BMO Capital Markets
BMO Capital Markets is a leading, full-service North American financial services provider, with more than 2,200 employees operating in 14 North American offices and 27 worldwide, offering corporate, institutional and government clients access to a complete range of investment and corporate banking products and services. BMO Capital Markets is a member of BMO Financial Group (NYSE, TSX: BMO), one of the largest diversified financial services providers in North America with US$359 billion total assets and more than 36,000 employees as at October 31, 2009.