UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION


          LITIGATION RELEASE NO.  15817 / July 20, 1998
          SECURITIES  AND  EXCHANGE  COMMISSION  v. Solv-Ex Corporation, et
          al., Civil Action No. Civ. 98-860-LH  (USDC D. New Mexico)

          The Commission announced the filing today of an injunctive action
          against  a New Mexico corporation and two  of  its  officers  and
          directors  for disseminating fraudulent statements concerning the
          nature and extent of the company's products and the status of its
          purported  proprietary   technological   processes.    Named   as
          defendants were Solv-Ex Corporation, its Chief Executive Officer,
          John  S.  Rendall  ("Rendall"), and the company's vice-president,
          Herbert M. Campbell II (Campbell").

          The complaint, filed  in  federal  district court in Albuquerque,
          New Mexico, alleges that from January  1995  though  April  1997,
          Solv-Ex,  Rendall  and  Campbell  represented  that the company's
          plant  in  Alberta,  Canada had developed operational  technology
          which produced salable  bitumen  from  oil  sands on a commercial
          scale,   that  this  bitumen  extraction  process  also   yielded
          industrial  minerals  of  marketable quality and volume, and that
          Solv-Ex had successfully tested a revolutionary electrolytic cell
          capable  of  producing  metallic  aluminum.   Contrary  to  these
          statements,  according  to   the   complaint,  Solv-Ex's  bitumen
          extraction process has at all times  been  in  the  research  and
          development   stage,   and  the  company's  attempts  to  recover
          industrial  minerals  from  that  process,  pursued  only  on  an
          experimental basis to date, have failed to yield any commercially
          viable product.  Further, the Commission's complaint alleges that
          Solv-Ex's single test of  the  electrolytic  cell, in 1996, was a
          failure.  According  to the Commission's complaint,  while  these
          false and misleading statements  were being disseminated by Solv-
          Ex, Rendall and Campbell, the price of the company's stock, which
          traded on the Nasdaq Small Cap Market, rose from approximately $5
          per share to $38 per share.

          The  Commission's  complaint alleges  that  Solv-Ex  and  Rendall
          violated the antifraud  and  issuer reporting provisions, Section
          17(a) of the Securities Act of  1933, Sections 10(b) and 13(a) of
          the Securities and Exchange Act of  1934 and Rules 10b-5, 12b-20,
          13a-1  and  13a-13  thereunder.   Campbell  is  alleged  to  have
          violated the antifraud provisions and  to  have aided and abetted
          the issuer reporting violations.