TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - May 13, 2011) - Rainy River Resources Ltd. (News - Market indicators) (the "Company" or "Rainy") is pleased to provide an update on its technical programs at the Rainy River Gold Project (RRGP) in Northwest Ontario. 

Rainy River is currently in the process of updating the mineral resource statement for the project. SRK Consulting Canada will be adding 50 drill holes to the existing resource model (see press release dated Feb 24, 2011). The updated model will form the basis for the Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA"). The Company also announces that it has engaged the services of BBA Inc. ("BBA") and AMEC (Earth & Environmental) ("AMEC") to complete a Preliminary Economic Assessment for the RRGP and to provide ongoing technical support for the Company's engineering and environmental programs.

BBA is a privately owned engineering firm based in Montreal, QC. The firm has over 600 employees and specializes in mining and energy projects. BBA led or is leading the feasibility and design of recent Canadian gold projects including the Detour Gold project, Osisko's Canadian Malartic mine, and Aurizon Mines' Joanna project. BBA will lead the PEA at Rainy River and will direct the Company's metallurgical test programs and site plan engineering.

BBA's scope of work will include the determination of capital and operating costs for an initial open-pit mine and possible phased expansions. An evaluation of future underground mine production at the RRGP will also be included.

Once the PEA is completed in Q3 2011, Rainy River will develop an optimal design for an Advanced Exploration Program that was initiated in late 2010. The Advanced Exploration Program will be designed to provide access to conduct underground exploration and, ultimately, development access to the deep mineralization in the ODM, 433 and BP Zones, and the newly-discovered 17 East Zone.

AMEC's Earth & Environmental business is part of the global AMEC organization with 22,000 employees operating in nearly 40 countries worldwide. AMEC has extensive mining experience providing environmental, permitting, geotechnical and engineering services to a number of major new mining projects in northern Ontario. AMEC will support the PEA study and lead the Company's environmental and geotechnical assessments. 

The exploration program at the RRGP for calendar 2011 includes 170,000metres of diamond drilling, with 50,000metres of drilling completed to date. The drill program for the remainder of 2011 will be allocated to infill definition and deep drilling (70%) and district exploration (30%). At the moment, eight drill rigs are on site, with another two drills expected to be mobilized by month end.

Raymond Threlkeld, President and CEO adds, "We are very pleased to have engaged BBA and AMEC to complete the Preliminary Economic Assessment and support the technical programs for the Rainy River Gold Project. Their experience with recent large scale Canadian gold projects will be very valuable as we continue to advance the project towards feasibility and a production decision."

Qualified persons

Rainy River's exploration program in Richardson Township is being supervised by Kerry Sparkes, P.Geo., Vice-President Exploration, a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Garett Macdonald, P.Eng., Vice President Operations and Kerry Sparkes, P.Geo. are the persons responsible for the content of this news release. The Company continues to implement a rigorous QA/QC program to ensure best practices in sampling and analysis of drill core. All drill core is marked for sampling and then split in half with a diamond saw blade. Samples are placed in sealed bags with security tags. All samples were assayed using a standard fire assay, 30 gram nominal sample weight with an AA finish. Over-limit samples were re-assayed with a gravimetric finish. Samples with visible gold were automatically analyzed for Ore Grade by 1,000g screen fire assay, with coarse and fine fractions being combined proportionately and the fine fraction being assayed twice. Standards, blanks and duplicates are inserted every 25 metres. ALS Canada Ltd. performed primary assaying, with duplicates being analyzed at Activation Laboratories Ltd. ALS Canada Ltd. and Activation Laboratories Ltd. implement independent QA/QC protocols that include the insertion of certified blanks and standards as part of their routine analysis.

About Rainy River Resources Ltd.

Rainy River Resources is a Canadian precious metals exploration company whose key asset is the Rainy River Gold Project. With over CAN$130million in cash and short term investments, the Company is well funded to conduct a dual-focused drilling program consisting of:1) definition diamond drilling of the main gold resources in preparation for scoping and pre-feasibility studies; and 2) selective diamond drill testing of high-priority gold targets defined primarily by RC drilling within the large gold system centred in Richardson Township. The Company's property is extremely well located in the southwestern corner of northern Ontario, near the U.S. border. It is accessed by a network of roads and is close to hydro-electric infrastructure. The Rainy River district has a skilled labour force and is one of the lowest-cost areas for mineral exploration and development. The Company is also working to advance the early-stage discoveries at its TPK Joint Venture Property, also in Ontario, where it can earn a 51% interest in the property from Northern Superior Resources Inc. Ontario has low political risk and, according to the annual Fraser Institute global survey of the mining industry, has consistently ranked as one of the top jurisdictions embracing mineral development.

RAINY RIVER RESOURCES LTD.

Raymond W. Threlkeld, President & CEO

This release includes certain statements that may be deemed to be "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical fact, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward looking statements. Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include gold prices, results of exploration and development activities, regulatory changes, defects in title, availability of materials and equipment, timeliness of government approvals, continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. The Company cautions that the foregoing list of important factors is not exhaustive. Investors and others who base themselves on the Company's forward looking statements should carefully consider the above factors as well as the uncertainties they represent and the risk they entail. The Company believes that the expectations reflected in those forward-looking statements are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct. Please see the public filings of the Company at www.sedar.com for further information.