Rainy River Resources Ltd. Announces the Discovery of High Grade Nickel-Copper-Cobalt Massive Sulphides at Pinewood South

   Rainy River Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE: RR) (the "Company" or "Rainy River") is pleased to announce assay results from a new nickel discovery at the Rainy River Gold Project ("RRGP") in northwest Ontario, where the Company is completing 170,000 metres of diamond drilling in 2011. Results are summarized in Tables 1 & 2.

Rainy River Resources also advises that the Company will be presenting at the Denver Gold Forum in Colorado Springs, USA, on Wednesday September 21st, at 9:20 am MDT.

HIGHLIGHTS

--  Rainy River has intersected a new zone of nickel-enriched magmatic
    massive sulphides at RRGP.
--  NR11822 has intersected high grade nickel, copper and cobalt massive
    sulphides with significant precious metals at a vertical depth of 106
    metres.

BACKGROUND

In 1995, prior to Rainy River's purchase of the RRGP property, drill hole NR-95-34 intersected massive and net textured Ni-Cu-PGM (platinum group metals)-Au-Ag-Co-bearing sulphides within a chloritized and locally serpentinized mafic-ultramafic host. NR-95-34 intersected 2.44 g/t gold, 0.94 % copper, 15.6 g/t silver, 1.31% nickel, 1.25 g/t platinum and 3.32 g/t palladium over 4.86 metres. At the time, this new nickel zone, which crosscuts gold mineralization in the main ODM Zone, became known as the 34-Zone. The 34 Zone extends at least 350 metres along strike and the host intrusion is approximately 100 metres thick and plunges at twelve degrees to the west. The limits of the 34 Zone are poorly constrained owing to the discontinuous nature of the mineralization due to faulting. In the recent NI 43-101 report on the RRGP, a modest resource for this zone of approximately 2,500 ounces of gold and 1,413,000 pounds of nickel have been assigned by SRK, all in the Indicated resource category.

TODAY'S EXPLORATION RESULTS

Pinewood South

As part of Rainy River's ongoing reconnaissance exploration program to explore for and target precious metal-rich volcanogenic massive sulphides ("VMS") south of the RRGP, the Company has intersected a new zone of magmatic massive sulphides, referred to as Pinewood South.

NR11822 intersected 4.3 metres of heavily chloritized and mineralized ultramafics with a 2.35 metre section of magmatic massive sulphide. The massive sulphides consist of both pyrite and pyrrhotite, with pyrrhotite being the dominant sulphide. This intersection is located 1.2 kilometres south-south west of the original 34 Zone discovery. Table 1 below provides assay details for the grouped averages, while Table 2 shows detailed assay intervals.

TABLE 1: Assay Details for the Grouped Averages
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HOLE-ID         FROM      TO  Length    NI %    CU %    CO %  AU g/t  AG g/t
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NR11822       119.25  122.10    2.85   3.060   1.190   0.062    1.23    8.68
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Including     119.75  122.10    2.35   3.626   1.316   0.064    1.38    9.69
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Assays for gold and silver show strong similarities in chemistry to the original 34 Zone mineralization. The ultramafics at RRGP have intruded a package of altered and locally well mineralized dacitic to rhyolitic units, and it is thought that these mineralized felsics have provided the sulphur source to enable the mineralization to precipitate. Two additional holes (NR11827 & NR11836) have been drilled in the vicinity of the intersection, and both have intersected significant thicknesses of mafic-ultramafic rocks with weak blebby mineralization. Results for platinum and palladium will be available within a week.

Rainy River has mobilized a borehole EM crew and has contracted Eastern Geophysics Ltd. to carry out a gravity survey to better outline the new discovery. This information coupled with a new Fugro Helitem Survey will better enable Rainy River to target the new nickel discovery for future follow up.

COMMENTARY

Raymond Threlkeld, President and CEO, adds "We have been exploring for gold-rich VMS in the area of NR11822 over the past six months. We have had several drill intercepts of pyritic massive sulphide, indicating we are in a potentially productive horizon, but they have little to no base metal or gold values to date. It appears that an ultramafic unit has intruded the sulphur-rich VMS-style alteration and mineralization in that area and produced a very high grade nickel-copper-gold lens, located approximately 1 km south of the RRGP.

This initial discovery is a direct result of our reconnaissance strategy to explore for and target precious metal-rich volcanogenic massive sulphides south of RRGP. Our plan for this stratigraphic package is to follow up with geophysical test work and additional drilling.

While we are encouraged with this recent discovery, we remain committed to the primary goal of our exploration program, which is to develop and expand the Company's existing gold resources."

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 has a rigorous QA/QC program in place 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 1000g 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. implements 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 approximately $115 million 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 centered 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.

Table 2: Detailed Assay Intervals
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                                     Vertical
HOLE-ID    FROM     TO Length Section   Depth  NI % CU %  CO % AU g/t AG g/t
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NR11822  117.80 119.25   1.45  425472  104.50 0.139 0.17 0.009   0.23   1.39
NR11822  119.25 119.75   0.50  425472  105.34 0.399 0.60 0.052   0.53   3.90
NR11822  119.75 120.80   1.05  425472  106.00 3.770 0.95 0.063   2.40   7.39
NR11822  120.80 122.10   1.30  425472  107.01 3.510 1.61 0.065   0.55  11.55
                                                                 less
                                                                 than
NR11822  122.10 123.00   0.90  425472  107.96 0.007 0.01 0.002  0.005   0.08
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Contacts: Rainy River Resources Ltd. Indi Gopinathan Director, Investor Relations [phone] [e-mail] www.rainyriverresources.com