NEWS RELEASE TRANSMITTED BY CCNMatthews

FOR:  HIGH RIVER GOLD MINES LTD.

TSX SYMBOL:  HRG

OCTOBER 31, 2003 - 08:41 ET

High River Gold Mines Ltd.: Positive Development
Decision at Taparko Gold Project

TORONTO, ONTARIO--High River Gold Mines Ltd.(TSX:HRG) is pleased 
to announce that a positive decision has been made, subject to 
formal board approvals, to commence development of the Taparko 
gold property in Burkina Faso, West Africa. 

The feasibility study evaluated the construction of a mill and 
infrastructure on High River's Taparko property to process ore 
from both the Taparko Gold deposit and Axmin's Bouroum Gold 
deposit located 49 kilometres northwest of the Taparko property. 

The combined operation would process one million tonnes per year 
and produce approximately 680,000 ounces of gold over a 7 1/2 
year mine life. Annual production would average 91,000 ounces but 
would be approximately 100,000 ounces in the first few years. 

The feasibility study considered mining from three pits on each 
property. The following table of mineral reserves has been 
established for the three pits on the Taparko property: 


/T/

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Property        Pit         Ore         Contained Gold   Strip Ratio
                     -----------------
                       (kt)    (g/t)         (oz)                   

Taparko         3/5   4632.8    2.83        421,500          4.6
                GT     892.3    3.83        109,900          6.0
               2N/2K  1227.0    1.86         73,400          3.5
                                         ------------
                                    Total   604,800
--------------------------------------------------------------------

/T/

At this time, High River expects that ore containing a minimum of 
110,000 ounces of gold will be available from the Bouroum 
property to be trucked to Taparko for processing. This will 
result in total contained gold of approximately 715,000 ounces 
for the project. 

A number of independent consultants and contractors provided 
input to the feasibility study under the Project management of 
Mr. Daniel Vanin, with ongoing technical support provided by 
Strathcona Mineral Services Limited (press release - July 31, 
2003). 

At a US $350 per ounce gold price, the project is expected to 
generate an IRR in excess of 15%. Although the feasibility study 
is complete, further optimization studies that will result in a 
bankable feasibility study could impact certain costs, including 
the total capital costs which could be lower than currently 
estimated. Definitive operating and capital costs will be 
provided following completion of the bankable feasibility study. 

High River has designed the facility with a longer term operation 
in mind as both companies believe there is excellent potential to 
define additional satellite deposits on both properties. Previous 
exploration has defined a total of 16 prospective gold targets 
within the Taparko property: nine of these targets are within the 
Taparko grid area itself and seven targets are outside that area. 
High River has carried out sufficient exploration, including 
trenching and drilling, on four of the targets to establish a 
high confidence level that additional gold resources, amenable to 
open pit mining, will be defined on these areas. These four areas 
are called Zemce, Goengo (V1 and V3 North), Zone 9 and Kan 2. In 
addition, High River has extended its exploration activities 
beyond the Taparko property, but in close proximity to the 
planned mill and infrastructure, through an agreement with Jilbey 
Gold Exploration Ltd. 

High River has an 80% interest in the Taparko Project; the 
Burkina Government has a 20% interest (5% of which is 
participating). 

Development and exploration of the Taparko deposits will be 
undertaken by a Burkinabe company in accordance with the 
provisions of the Mining Investment Agreement established between 
High River and the Burkina Government in 1996. The "Heads of 
Agreement", regarding Bouroum, between High River and Axmin 
provides for the negotiation of a Joint Venture Agreement between 
the companies acceptable to the Burkina Government that would 
allow for the joint development of the project. Production is 
targeted to begin in late 2005, subject to a production decision 
following the granting of the required permits. 

High River enjoys working in Burkina Faso and has developed an 
excellent relationship with the Government. With the Government's 
support, the Company has been able to keep the Taparko Project 
moving forward during the difficult years of low gold prices. 
High River is looking forward to a successful mining operation at 
Taparko and plans to expand its activities throughout Burkina 
Faso and West Africa, using Taparko as its base. 

Quality Assurance 

The drilling programme required to produce a National Instrument 
43-101 compliant resource was recommended and carried out under 
the supervision of Dr. Henrik Thalenhorst, P. Geo. of Strathcona 
Mineral Services Ltd. and Michael Michaud, P. Geo. of SRK 
Consulting, both of whom participated in the modeling and 
resource calculation. Andrew Bradfield, P. Eng. of SRK produced 
the mining plan and production schedule, and consulted on the 
mining costs with Daniel Vanin, P. Eng., consulting project 
manager. Metallurgical Design and Management Ltd. completed the 
process plant design and cost estimates, surface infrastructure 
lay-out, and supervised the metallurgical testing which was 
carried out by Lakefield Research Africa (Pty) Limited in South 
Africa. Golder Associates completed the geotechnical evaluation 
and pit stability studies. Roche Ltee., in conjunction with three 
Burkinabe companies, BIGH, BEM, and SOCREGE, carried out the 
environmental, socio-economic and water studies. Knight Piesold 
and Co. provided the preliminary tailings facility design. 

Laboratories which completed analyses on the drilling samples 
included Intertek Testing Services, Bondar Clegg in Ouagadougou, 
Burkina Faso; Abilab in Bamako, Mali; and Transworld Labs of 
Tarkwa, Ghana. Check analytical work at other independent 
laboratories was carried out at Omac Lab, Ireland; X-RAL 
Laboratories (SGS), Toronto; and ALS Chemex, Vancouver. 



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