TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Nov. 30, 2009) - Polenica Investments Limited ("Polenica"), an investment company and affiliate of the Troika Dialog Group, one of Russia's leading private investment banking group, entered into a subscription agreement with High River Gold Mines Limited ("High River") dated as of October 29, 2009 to acquire 150,000,000 common shares of High River (the "Shares") from treasury on a private placement basis at a price of CDN
.38 per share, representing gross proceeds to High River of CDN$57,000,000 (the "Private Placement").
The Shares to be acquired by Polenica represent approximately 23.1% of High River's issued and outstanding common shares as at the date hereof. After giving effect to the Private Placement, Polenica will own and control a total of 150,000,000 common shares of High River representing approximately 18.77% of the issued and outstanding common shares of High River. As High River has obtained the conditional approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange with respect to the Private Placement and the personal information form relating to Polenica has cleared, it is expected that the Private Placement will close shortly.
Polenica will be acquiring the Shares for investment purposes. Polenica and its joint actors may in the future increase or decrease their respective ownership of securities of High River from time to time depending upon the business and prospects of High River and future market conditions.
Polenica's address is: 7 Perdica Street, Strovolos, P.C. 2057, Nicosia, Cyprus.
An early warning report (the "EWR") will be filed on SEDAR and will be available for review at www.sedar.com under High River's profile. A copy of the EWR can be obtained from the contact below.
About Troika Dialog
Founded in 1991, Troika Dialog Group is the leading independent full service investment bank and asset management firm in Russia. The Group's business consists of securities sales and trading, investment banking, private wealth and asset management, retail distribution and alternative investment. Troika Dialog's operations are located in 25 cities across Russia plus offices in London, New York, Kyiv, Almaty and Nicosia. In March this year, Troika Dialog Group announced a strategic alliance with Standard Bank under which Standard Bank acquired a 33% stake in Troika Dialog.
About High River
High River is unhedged gold company with interests in producing mines and advanced exploration projects in Russia and Burkina Faso. Two producing mines, Zun-Holba and Irokinda, are situated in the Lake Baikal region of Russia. Two new open pit gold mines, Berezitovy in Russia and Taparko-Bouroum in Burkina Faso, are also in production. Finally, High River has two advanced exploration projects with NI 43-101 compliant resource estimates, the Bissa gold project in Burkina Faso and 50% interest in the Prognoz silver project in Russia.