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VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Dec. 24, 2009) - Fortune River Resource Corp. (TSX VENTURE:FRX)(FRANKFURT:RG7A) reported today that it has arranged a private-placement financing to fund an independent Preliminary Assessment (also called a scoping study) for its wholly-owned Wind Mountain project, a former producing heap-leach, low-sulfidation gold/silver property in the Walker Lane gold trend of western Nevada.

The financing will consist of a total of 6,000,000 units for total gross proceeds of $480,000, with each unit priced at C$0.08 and consisting of one common share and one whole share purchase warrant. Each warrant is exercisable for two years to purchase one additional common share of the company at a price of CD$0.10 per share.

President Joe Kizis commented, "The increase in price for gold and silver, combined with favorable metallurgical test results from the 'waste' piles that we reported earlier in the year (See news release dated June 12, 2009), warrant an independent evaluation of the economics of Wind Mountain. The resource estimate completed during December 2007 used a gold price of US$640 per ounce and a silver price of $12.50 per ounce to determine cut-off grade and occurred before we discovered that significant portions of the historic 'waste' piles contained higher-than-expected gold grades. Cut-off grade is important at Wind Mountain because anomalous concentrations of gold are widespread; thus, lowering the cut-off grade may dramatically reduce the strip ratio. In addition, production of potentially very low-cost ounces from the historic 'waste' piles early in the mine life should favorably affect the overall economics of the project by reducing the period of capital payback."

The Preliminary Assessment is expected to be completed over the next two to three months and will be led by Mines Development Associates of Reno, Nevada.

In Other News

Geologic mapping and sampling have been completed at the Highland and Buz projects, and IP and AMT geophysical surveys are now underway at Highland. Geologic targeting is in progress and drill targets will be recommended for permitting at both projects once data from the geophysical surveys are received and evaluated. Drilling at both projects is anticipated for the spring or summer of 2010. The company is the project operator on behalf of Christopher James Gold, which is earning into a majority interest in the projects (See news releases dated July 14, 2009 and July 22, 2009).

About Wind Mountain

The project is located approximately 160km northeast of Reno and has good road access and a power line to the property. AMAX Gold/Kinross Gold recovered nearly 300,000 ounces of gold and over 1,700,000 ounces of silver between 1989 and 1999 from the Wind Mountain and Breeze open-pit, heap-leach operations (based on Kinross Gold files). Rio Fortuna Exploration (US) Inc., a wholly owned US subsidiary of Fortune River, acquired the property pursuant to an earn-in agreement with Agnico-Eagle (USA) Limited, a subsidiary of Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited, which retains a 2% NSR royalty interest, of which 1% can be purchased for $1,000,000 at any time prior to production. The company also obtained a lease on 10 additional claims from a third party.

In late 2007 the company received an independent NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate of the remaining mineralization, which includes a total Measured plus Indicated Resource for the project of 33.7 million tons averaging 0.012opt gold (0.411g/t Au) using a cutoff grade of 0.0075opt Au (0.257g/t Au), containing 406,000 ounces of gold (See News Release dated January 8/08). Additionally, the estimate includes an Inferred Resource of 9.8 million tons averaging 0.009opt Au (0.308g/t Au) using a cutoff grade of 0.0075opt Au, containing 92,000 ounces of gold. None of the mineralization encountered in the Company's 2008 holes is included in the resource estimates and none of the material contained in historic 'waste' piles was considered resource at the time.

Ore Reserves Engineering ("O.R.E.") and Donald E. Ranta, consulting geologist, prepared the resource model and compiled the technical report, which is available on SEDAR. Alan C. Noble, P.E. is the Principal Engineer of O.R.E. and is the Qualified Person for the technical report for the purpose of Canadian NI 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

Historic mining created approximately 9.4 million tonnes of 'waste' material at Wind Mountain. The average grade of this material based on drilling is estimated to be 0.216 g/t Au; however, hand-trench sampling by Fortune River indicated that a substantial portion of this material was upgraded to approximately 0.3 g/t Au when it was loaded onto the waste dumps. Larger, less mineralized boulders rolled to the base of the dumps during stacking, which left the finer residual material on the upper levels of the dump with an increased grade. Some Nevada mines load their sub-ore material in this way, and then re-mine the upper portions of those dumps.

Fortune River collected two bulk samples from two of the dumps, with each sample being approximately 20 tonnes. The bulk samples were tested for metallurgic characteristics at McClellan Metallurgical Laboratory. Assaying of these large samples has confirmed the upgrading observed in Fortune River's initial surface sampling, with each sample averaging approximately 0.4 g/t Au and 10 g/t Ag. The test work included two large column leach tests of approximately 2.5 tonnes each, which was split from the original 20-tonne sample.

The bulk sample from the Wind Pit dump demonstrates attractive leaching characteristics, with 61% recovery for gold and 15% recovery for silver, low cyanide consumption (0.46 kg NaCN/mt) and low requirements for lime (1.4 kg/mt). The test was performed over a period of 134 days on -150mm (-6 inch) material, which comprises 95% of the original 20-tonne sample. Fifty percent recovery was obtained in 16 days.

The bulk sample from the smaller Breeze Pit dump plugged due to excessive fines (~37% -65 mesh), about twice the amount in the Wind Pit sample, and the test was discontinued. This sample contained an unexpectedly high percentage of clay; thus, further work is needed to determine the distribution of clay in this dump to avoid potential problems with heap percolation.

Joe Kizis Jr., (P.Geo.) is the Qualified Person responsible for reviewing the technical results reported in this release for Nevada properties.

On behalf of the Board,

"Joe Kizis"

Joseph Anthony Kizis, Jr. President, Fortune River Resource Corp.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. We seek safe harbor.