ACQUISITION: Russia’s Severstal injects cash into High River

TORONTO — High River Gold Mines has received a $56.4-million injection of much-needed cash from the sale of shares to Russian miner ZAO Severstal Resources. Affiliates of the Russian company held approximately 9.9% of High River's outstanding shares before the deal, and that will jump immediately upon closing to 53.0%.

High River owns three gold mines in the Russian Federation (Berezitovy, Irokinda and Zun-Holba) and one in Burkina Faso (Taparko-Bouroum). Chief among its advanced exploration projects is the Prognoz epithermal silver deposit in the Yakutsk region of Russia. The 43-101-compliant numbers released in June 2008, included 4.5 million tonnes indicated with a grade of 704 g/t Ag and 4.9 million tonnes inferred with a grade of 659 g/t Ag. Mineralization is contained in 30 or more veins.

High River holds 50% of the Prognoz project, and it has offered to purchase the remaining 50%. When that transaction is complete, Severstal's interest in High River will be 50.1%.

Visit www.HRG.ca to learn more about Prognoz, called by High River "one of the largest and highest grade undeveloped primary silver projects in the world."