NEWS RELEASE TRANSMITTED BY CCNMatthews

FOR:  HIGH RIVER GOLD MINES LTD.

TSX SYMBOL:  HRG

MAY 5, 2005 - 17:04 ET

High River Gold Starts Drilling At Labola, Burkina Faso

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(CCNMatthews - May 5, 2005) - High River Gold Mines 
Ltd. (TSX:HRG) ("High River" or the "Company") has approved expenditures 
of US $450,000 for exploration work on four of its properties in Burkina 
Faso for the month of May. Drilling has just started at the Labola 
property located in southwestern Burkina Faso.

LABOLA PROPERTY

The Company is currently conducting 1,500 metres of reverse circulation 
drilling in 16 holes and 1,440 metres of RAB drilling to test a series 
of subparallel quartz veins traced over a strike length of 11 kilometres 
within a 300 metre wide deformation corridor. The drilling is expected 
to be completed by the end of May.

The area had significant artisanal mining with an estimated 5,000 local 
people mining gold from these quartz veins from surface to a depth of 40 
metres. Artisanal mining is still ongoing but at a lower rate than a few 
months ago as more miners have reached the water table, making mining 
nearly impossible. Based on the artisanal gold workings at surface, the 
width of the zones varies from 5 to 50 metres. There are no quartz vein 
outcrops left along the zones that are mined. There is one section of 
1.7 kilometres in strike length with no artisanal workings due to thick 
overburden (location of the RAB drilling fence).

In late 2004, the Company collected 186 rock samples along the different 
mineralized zones as part of a reconnaissance programme on the license 
area. These consisted of grab samples of quartz veins and enclosing wall 
rocks left in piles next to the workings by the artisanal miners. The 
average grade of 110 quartz vein samples returned 5.4 g/t gold (with a 
maximum assay of 72.6 g/t gold) and an additional 52 samples of host 
rock averaged 0.8 g/t gold. The Company's geologists are confident that 
the grade of the quartz vein structures is underestimated as the 
artisanal miners would select only quartz with visible gold (estimated 
at greater than 20 g/t gold).

GANDI PROPERTY

The Gandi permit is situated 90 kilometres south-southwest of the 
Taparko deposit. The Company started the following activities at the end 
of April, which will continue throughout the month of May:

- Re-establishment of the grid around the Tanbyanga gold showing, which 
has been extensively worked by artisanal mining;

- 540 metres of trenching in the area of a previous trench sample 
returning 1.7 g/t over 16 metres

- Detailed soil sampling on the Tanbyanga grid; and

- Regional soil sampling (400 metres x 400 metres spacing) around the 
Tanbyanga grid.

Assay results from a previous sampling campaign by the Company in the 
area of the Tanbyanga showing had returned greater than 1 g/t gold for 
38 samples with 12 of these assaying greater than 5 g/t gold to a 
maximum of 69 g/t gold. A 40 metre long trench excavated at Tanbyanga 
returned an intersection of 1.7 g/t gold over 16 metres (including 2.4 
g/t gold over 8 metres) and another zone grading 1.2 g/t over 8 metres 
was returned from sulphidic felsic intrusive rocks, which outcrop over a 
distance of 200 metres. Both mineralized zones remain open along strike 
and at depth.

BOUROUM GROUP PERMITS

These properties located near the Bouroum deposit are under an option 
agreement with AXMIN Limited.

The Company is currently conducting a programme of 13 trenches totalling 
1,630 linear metres at the Yeou 1, Yeou 2 and Yeou 3 prospects. At Yeou 
3, where some artisinal mining has taken place, rock sampling assays 
included 20 (of a total of 56) grading greater than 1 g/t gold, of which 
eight samples assayed greater than 5 g/t gold. Yeou 3 has been traced 
for over 1.5 kilometres along strike with geochemical and geophysical 
anomalies indicating that the structure possibly extends to Yeou 1, a 
total strike length of 6 kilometres.

On the Baola permit, compilation of past work performed nearly 10 years 
ago by a previous operator resulted in outlining an area (13.4 
kilometres long by 2 kilometres wide) of moderate to strong soil 
geochemical anomalies in the extension of Bouroum's Welcome Stranger and 
F-12 gold deposits. High River is re-establishing a grid over the area 
for soil sampling and geological mapping. The work has started and is 
expected to be completed in early June with the objective of having 
drill targets ready for testing in the fourth quarter of 2005.

The Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 for the exploration 
programmes in Burkina Faso is Driffield Cameron, Vice President 
Exploration for High River.

TAPARKO-BOUROUM PROJECT

The Company is currently advancing the construction of the 
Taparko-Bouroum project scheduled for production in early 2006. A 
progress report on the construction activities will be released next 
week.

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