NEWS RELEASE TRANSMITTED BY CCNMatthews

FOR:  HIGH RIVER GOLD MINES LTD.

TSX SYMBOL:  HRG

AND JILBEY GOLD EXPLORATION LTD.

TSX VENTURE SYMBOL:  JLB

FEBRUARY 18, 2004 - 08:50 ET

Strategic Alliance Agreement Between High River Gold And
Jilbey Gold Results In Aggressive Exploration Plans For
Burkina Faso

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(TSX:HRG) - High River Gold Mines Ltd.("High 
River") and Jilbey Gold Exploration Ltd.("Jilbey") (TSXV:JLB) 
have signed a letter agreement which will significantly expand 
the exploration activity on their large land position in Burkina 
Faso. The agreement is subject to regulatory approval and the 
approval of the board of directors of both companies. 

The strategic alliance establishes Jilbey as High River's 
exploration arm in Burkina Faso, on an exclusive basis, and 
provides Jilbey with defined rights of access to the planned mill 
at High River's Taparko Gold Project. 

High River will have the right to back-in for 50% of each 
property where a new economic deposit is discovered within 
trucking distance of the planned Taparko production facility, a 
distance of approximately 100 kilometres. On deposits found 
outside the trucking distance, Jilbey may develop the project on 
a 100% Jilbey basis; High River will have a 30-day right of first 
refusal, if Jilbey decides it wants a partner. 

In October 2003, High River announced it was commencing 
development of the Taparko Gold Project in Burkina Faso (press 
release dated October 31, 2003). The planned operation should 
process one million tonnes of ore per year, through a 
conventional mill, with gold production averaging more than 
90,000 ounces per year over an eight year period, exceeding 
100,000 ounces in each of the first three years. 

High River is designing the operation and infrastructure with 
"expansion" and an "extended mine life" in mind as the Company 
believes there is excellent potential to define satellite 
deposits within trucking distance of the mill. A standard joint 
venture agreement will be formed to provide for development of 
any significant gold deposit discovered within trucking distance 
of the Taparko project, with High River the operator in the 
development and production stage. The tolling charge will be 
based on (a) any expansion required to the Taparko mill financed 
by High River and amortized over the mine life of the new 
reserve, plus (b) the cost to High River of processing ore. As a 
result, Jilbey will have the potential to become an early gold 
producer through an established production facility with the 
expansion financed by High River. 

The strategic alliance is designed to allow High River to focus 
management time and funding on the development, production and/or 
acquisition of defined gold deposits and Jilbey's management to 
focus on aggressive gold exploration for new discoveries that can 
either enhance the Taparko project by expanding the production 
profile or extending the mine life, or result in new stand-alone 
development projects for Jilbey in Burkina Faso. 

High River has also agreed to support Jilbey's future equity 
financings by subscribing for 10% to 15% of total financings and 
to contract its exploration team to Jilbey at cost. This 
maintains the momentum and continuity of an expert exploration 
team, that has been active in Burkina Faso since 1996, for the 
benefit of both companies. 

As part of the strategic alliance, High River has agreed to 
transfer all its existing exploration properties in Burkina Faso 
to Jilbey other than High River's original property which is 
covered by a Mining Investment Agreement with the Burkina Faso 
government. High River will transfer four new properties, 
totalling approximately 900 square kilometres, that are within 
trucking distance of the planned Taparko mill. High River will 
continue to assist Jilbey in acquiring additional exploration 
properties but will maintain the right to acquire advanced gold 
projects from third parties in Burkina Faso on its own. 

High River and Jilbey currently control properties in Burkina 
Faso covering in excess of 5,300 square kilometres, of which 
approximately 2/3 are within trucking distance of the Taparko 
mill. Two of the new properties being transferred by High River, 
Birgui-Nabingou and Bougou, have already received US $370,000 of 
exploration work, and have defined geochemical anomalies on 
favourable structural trends along the northwestern strike 
extension of the Taparko shear zone that hosts High River's 
Taparko gold deposits. 

These two properties provide Jilbey with drill ready targets and 
a US $230,000 Rotary Air Blast ("RAB") drilling programme is 
planned to commence later this month. The RAB drilling is 
designed to test geochemical anomalies approximately 20 
kilometres from the planned development site of the Taparko mill. 


Jilbey Gold is currently operating active exploration programmes 
on three separate area plays in Burkina Faso. Around the Taparko 
deposit area, Jilbey has completed regional prospecting, 
geophysics, geochemistry and an extensive RAB drilling program 
and follow up definition drilling is planned to test several 
target areas. In the Bissa deposit area, east of Cluff's Kalsaka 
deposit, Jilbey is conducting a regional prospecting programme 
and geochemical sampling programme along the prospective Birimian 
rocks on the permits and to date several potential RAB drilling 
targets have been identified. In the Hounde belt, Jilbey is 
exploring its permits which cover 60 kilometres of the southern 
extension of the significant gold bearing structure extending 
from Orezone's Bondi discovery. Mr. Isenor, President and CEO of 
Jilbey, stated "2004 will be the busiest year ever for Jilbey 
Gold and we are very excited to be conducting this extensive 
programme in such a prospective, underexplored country with the 
assistance of our strategic partner, High River Gold". 

Note: this press release has two map attachments. Please click on 
the following links to view the attachments: 

http://w52.ccnmatthews.com/database/fax/2000/HRG0218A.jpg 

http://w52.ccnmatthews.com/database/fax/2000/HRG0218B.jpg 

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