Rimfire Partners With Northgate to Explore Australia's Stawell Gold Trend

Rimfire Minerals Corporation ("Rimfire") (TSX VENTURE:RFM) is pleased to
announce a new exploration partnership with gold-producer Northgate Minerals
Corporation (NGX-TSX), which grants Rimfire an option on its Stawell Corridor
gold exploration properties in the State of Victoria, Australia. Northgate,
through its 2008 acquisition of Perseverance Corporation Ltd., acquired a
dominant claim position in the Victoria Goldfields, host to over 50 million
ounces of gold in both alluvial and hard rock reserves and production.


"With this agreement, we are building on an established relationship," said
President and CEO, Jason Weber. "It is a terrific opportunity that became
available to us because Northgate's focus is on exploration around their two
operating mines, allowing us to advance their outside targets in the corridor."


Chris Rockingham, VP of Exploration and Business Development for Northgate
stated, "From Northgate's perspective, choosing Rimfire as a joint venture
partner was easy. They have proven to be very capable operators in our Canadian
Joint Ventures and the Stawell Corridor land package is ideally suited for their
grass roots exploration skill set."


Highlights of this agreement include:

- The opportunity to explore a highly productive gold belt in a politically
stable jurisdiction.


- The land position is coherent, encompassing much of the Stawell Corridor. The
Stawell Corridor itself is well defined with Northgate's high grade Stawell Gold
Mine (SGM) at its core.


- Excellent greenfield exploration opportunities. The exploration model for the
corridor has been extensively studied, providing exploration criteria at both
the regional and detailed scales. Rimfire will have access to Northgate's SGM
which will help build a better understanding of the geological model and improve
Rimfire's exploration effectiveness.


- High quality targets with convincing similarities to SGM exist in the land
package being made available to Rimfire. Previous work programs were well
designed, identifying numerous targets that have yet to be brought to the
drill-ready stage, however, insufficient resources were available to the
predecessor company to conduct systematic greenfields exploration of the entire
land package.


- The deal is structured similar to other Rimfire/Northgate arrangements in
which Rimfire undertakes to advance exploration to the point where drill targets
are defined, at which time Northgate can take over funding of exploration,
earning a larger percentage in the property for doing so.


The Stawell Corridor is a 240 km long belt bound by the Congee and Moyston
faults and cored by Northgate's 5 million ounce Stawell Gold Mine (20 Mt at 8
g/t gold). Mineralization consists of gold-bearing quartz veins in ferruginous
(iron-rich) sediments associated with basalt centres. This deposit has been
studied extensively, resulting in the identification of large-scale
characteristics that can be used in the exploration for similar deposits
elsewhere in the district. Geophysical techniques such as gravity and magnetics
surveys have proven effective in targeting basalt centres and granites
associated with mineralization. These techniques will be important in evaluating
the rest of the Stawell Corridor and refining targets for drilling.


Rimfire will be exploring three licences, totaling 120 km of the corridor
length, representing all ground outside of a buffer around the Stawell Gold
Mine. In addition to greenfields opportunities, more advanced targets exist
including the 10 kilometre-long Murtoa target, which surrounds the Kewell gold
resource. The Kewell resource, which Northgate has opted to exclude from this
agreement, is reported to contain a historic 100,000 ounces of gold at 6 g/t
gold and has been defined by 25 drillholes. Additional targets include
kilometre-scale gravity anomalies that have been confirmed through drilling to
reflect basalt centres at depth, with coincident gold and pathfinder element
geochemical anomalies on surface. Rimfire has commenced a compilation of all the
available data to plan field work for this fall.


Under the agreement, Rimfire agrees to conduct exploration to maintain the
licenses in good standing for the current year (approximately $370,000). Rimfire
can then elect to conduct further exploration on any or all three of the
licenses, earning a 50% interest on each by spending $500,000 per license over
two years. Northgate then has the option on each license to: 1) carry out the
next $1.5 million to earn back a 10% interest (total 60%) and another 10% by
reaching a production decision; 2) not participate and allow Rimfire to earn a
100% interest in the property by spending, or causing to have spent, an
additional $2 million over 4 years; or 3) participate in a 50/50 joint venture.


About Rimfire

Rimfire Minerals Corporation is an aggressive, well-financed mineral exploration
company with a portfolio of highly prospective gold and copper properties in
western North America and Australia. Current and former partners include
AngloGold Ashanti Limited, Barrick Gold Corporation, Newmont Mining Company,
Inmet Mining Corporation, Northgate Minerals Corporation, Fronteer Development
Group Inc., Rubicon Minerals Corporation, American Creek Resources Ltd., Island
Arc Exploration Corporation, Jaguar Minerals Limited and BWG.


On behalf of Rimfire Minerals Corporation

Jason Weber, P.Geo., President & CEO

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT: This News Release includes certain "forward-looking
statements". Other than statements of historical fact, all statements included
in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding future
plans and objectives of Rimfire Minerals Corporation, are forward-looking
statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no
assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and
future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.
Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from
Rimfire's expectations are the risks detailed herein and from time to time in
the filings made by Rimfire Minerals Corporation with securities regulators.
Those filings can be found on the Internet at http://www.sedar.com and
http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html.