NEWS RELEASE TRANSMITTED BY CCNMatthews

FOR:  HIGH RIVER GOLD MINES LTD.

TSX SYMBOL:  HRG

APRIL 27, 2004 - 12:35 ET

High River Gold Participates In Jilbey Gold Financing

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(CCNMatthews - Apr 27, 2004) - (TSX:HRG) - 
Today High River Gold Mines Ltd. announced that it took up 13.9% 
($337,500) of a financing which Jilbey Gold Exploration Ltd. 
(TSXV-JLB) reported on April 26, 2004 for gross proceeds of 
$2,425,614, to be used to advance Jilbey's gold exploration 
projects in Burkina Faso. The Company's participation enables 
High River to meet its corporate objective of holding a minimum 
10% equity interest in Jilbey. 

Earlier this year, High River and Jilbey entered into a strategic 
alliance agreement which established Jilbey as the Company's 
exploration arm in Burkina Faso. High River has back-in and 
operatorship rights on gold discoveries within trucking distance 
of High River's planned Taparko mill and a right of first refusal 
on discoveries outside trucking distance. High River and Jilbey 
Gold currently control in excess of 3,500 square kilometres 
within a 100 kilometre radius of the proposed Taparko mine and 
mill facility. Jilbey also controls another 1,900 square 
kilometres in other prospective locations in Burkina Faso. 

STRATEGIC ALLIANCE STRATEGY and STATUS UPDATE 

High River's focus is on production, development, and exploration 
in areas close enough to impact its existing mining operations. 
To gain exposure to exploration success in other areas and/or to 
expand its exploration efforts, High River's strategy is to 
position itself to participate in a significant part of the 
reward of discovery through minority equity interests in 
well-managed junior exploration companies and, where possible, 
back in rights, first rights of refusal and operatorship rights 
while minimizing the risk associated with the early exploration 
costs. High River currently has three strategic alliances in 
place where it has taken equity positions to support the funding 
requirements of their exploration programmes.  

Jilbey Gold Exploration Ltd. (TSXV-JLB) 

Jilbey Gold is currently operating active exploration programmes 
on three separate area plays in Burkina Faso. In the Bissa area, 
east of Cluff's Kalsaka deposit, Jilbey now controls 822 square 
kilometres and is currently conducting a core drilling programme 
on the Bissa Hill deposit. A regional programme along the 
prospective Birimian stratigraphy has also identified several 
potential drill targets. Around the Taparko deposit area, follow 
up definition drilling is planned to test several target areas. 
In the Hounde belt, Jilbey is conducting regional exploration on 
1,083 square kilometres defined by its permits which cover sixty 
kilometres of the southern extension of the significant gold 
bearing structure extending from Orezone Resources Inc.'s Bondi 
discovery. 

Intrepid Minerals Corporation (TSXV-IAU) 

Intrepid is well financed and has an aggressive drilling 
programme underway in Argentina and El Salvador. In Argentina, 
the company has defined a relatively high-grade, open-pit 
resource of 320,000 ounces of gold and 6.7 million ounces of 
silver in one zone along a highly prospective trend.  

In El Salvador, Intrepid recently discovered a high-potential, 
bulk tonnage gold/silver target (Oro Nuevo), hosted in an 
extensive hydrothermal system. High River, one of Intrepid's 
founding shareholders, has representation on the board and is 
well placed to become Intrepid's partner of choice in any 
development and/or production scenario. 

Pelangio Mines Inc. (TSXV-PLG) 

Pelangio is well financed and has an aggressive exploration 
programme underway on its large Detour Lake gold property in the 
prolific Abitibi Greenstone belt north of Timmins, Ontario. The 
property contains a historical resource of 1.76 million ounces 
(1,238,000 ounces in the inferred category). Pelangio is 
conducting a scoping study on the historical resource and an 
aggressive exploration programme on the remainder of the property 
either on its own or in joint venture. High River is supervising 
the technical work for Pelangio and is acting as Pelangio's 
technical advisor. Pelangio will maintain the right of 
operatorship during the development and production stage of any 
new deposits. High River is Pelangio's largest shareholder and 
has representation on the board. 


/T/

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Company      Equity Interest     Cost   Current Market    Unrealized
                                 ($)        Value        Capital Gain
                                       as of April 26/04      ($)
                                             ($)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Jilbey Gold   2,007,660        705,000      863,000         158,000
               shs (10 %)
Intrepid
 Minerals     4,353,629      1,312,000    4,049,000       2,737,000
               shs (10 %)
Pelangio
 Mines       12,015,000      4,914,000    6,728,000       1,814,000
               shs (19 %)
                            -----------------------------------------
                      TOTAL  6,931,000   11,640,000       4,709,000
---------------------------------------------------------------------

/T/

High River's equity ownership in Jilbey, Intrepid, and Pelangio 
has already resulted in a significant return as an unrealized 
capital gain. However, of far greater importance is the strategic 
relationship and exposure to new discoveries, whereby High River 
intends to be the partner of choice at the mine development 
stage. 

High River expects these strategic investment initiatives to add 
significant asset value to the Company. It is High River's 
intention to provide a status report on these strategic 
relationships from time to time when the individual companies 
press release material events. 

All three companies are now well financed and will be pursuing 
aggressive exploration programmes for the foreseeable future. 

-30-

You can return to the Top of this page