TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Dec. 2, 2009) –High River Gold Mines Ltd. ("High River" or the "Company") (TSX:HRG)announced that it has closed its previously announced private placement(the "Private Placement") of 150,000,000 common shares (the "Shares")of the Company. Polenica Investments Limited ("Polenica"), an affiliateof Troika Dialog Group purchased the Shares for a price of CDN
.38 perShare for total aggregate gross proceeds to High River of CDN$57million. The Shares Polenica acquired pursuant to the Private Placementrepresent approximately 18.7% of the currently outstanding Shares.
Proceedsof the Private Placement will be used for repayment of theapproximately US$27 million outstanding under the two credit agreementsthat were assigned by Standard Bank Plc to OAO Severstal as of April20, 2009, with the balance being used to fund the exploration programat Buryatzoloto and for general corporate purposes.
About High River
HighRiver is unhedged gold company with interests in producing mines andadvanced exploration projects in Russia and Burkina Faso. Two producingmines, Zun-Holba and Irokinda, are situated in the Lake Baikal regionof Russia. Two new open pit gold mines, Berezitovy in Russia andTaparko-Bouroum in Burkina Faso, are also in production. Finally, HighRiver has two advanced exploration projects with NI 43-101 compliantresource estimates, the Bissa gold project in Burkina Faso and 50%interest in the Prognoz silver project in Russia.