Yamana Gold Corporation acquires Meridian Gold Inc. owner of the stalled Esquel Gold Mine Project

Yamana Gold Completes Formal Offer for Meridian Gold; Acquires Approximately 90% of Meridian Shares

YAMANA GOLD INC. (TSX: YRI)(NYSE: AUY)(LSE: YAU) today announced that it has taken up and accepted for payment an additional 13.3 million common shares of Meridian Gold Inc. as part of the ordinary course extension of its offer. Together with the approximately 78 million shares previously taken up and accepted for payment, Yamana now owns 90,813,237 million shares, representing approximately 90 percent of the outstanding common shares of Meridian.

Yamana offered to acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Meridian on the basis of C$7.00 cash plus 2.235 Yamana common shares for each Meridian share. The Yamana offer commenced on July 19, 2007 and expired at 12:00 am (EST) on November 2, 2007.

Yamana expects to complete its acquisition of Meridian in the ordinary course through a plan of arrangement in which Meridian common shares not acquired under the Yamana offer will be acquired for the same consideration as under the Yamana offer as is customary in transactions of this sort. Upon completion of the arrangement, Meridian will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yamana. Yamana expects to complete the plan of arrangement by year end.

About Yamana

Yamana is a Canadian gold producer with significant gold production, gold development stage properties, exploration properties, and land positions in Brazil, Argentina and Central America. With the purchase of Meridian Gold, the company now also owns mines and properties in Chile, Mexico and the United States. Yamana is producing gold at intermediate company production levels in addition to significant copper production. Yamana's management plans to continue to build on this base through the advancement of its exploration properties and by targeting other gold consolidation opportunities in the Americas.

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