High Desert Gold Corporation Completes Phase 1 Diamond Drilling Program at the Canasta Dorada Property in Sonora,

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, May 20 (MARKET WIRE) --
High Desert Gold Corporation (TSX: HDG)(TSX: HDG.WT) ("HDG" or the
"Company") announces that it has completed the Phase 1 diamond drill
program at the Canasta Dorada gold project, Sonora Mexico. The recently
completed program consisted of 33 diamond drill holes of which 16 have
been previously reported. This press release reports the results of 11
drill holes, leaving results from six drill holes still pending.

These drill results have expanded the area with gold mineralization in
the "Big Pit Area". Notable intercepts in this round of results are from
drill holes CD-07-013A and CD-08-027:

------------------------------------------------
Drill Hole From To Length Gold
----- --- ------- -----
(m) (m) (m) grade (g/t)
--- --- --- -----------

------------------------------------------------
CD-07-013A 0.0 25.5 25.5 1.087
------------------------------------------------
including 0.0 9.0 9.0 1.784
------------------------------------------------
and
------------------------------------------------
15.0 23.5 8.5 1.206
------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------
CD-08-27 0 4 4 1.385
------------------------------------------------

Ralph Fitch, President of the Company, stated "The results to date
have outlined an outcropping zone of approximately 400 metres by 150
metres in surface extent and 15 metres thick that remains open-ended
towards the south-west. Equally importantly, our reconnaissance
exploration has now found what appears to be the same low angle
structural setting three kilometres to the west of our current drilling,
opening up a very large exploration play with multiple targets and target
sizes."

Mineralization in the "Big Pit Area" now includes two components of near
surface mineralization:

1.) Surface channel samples from rock exposed in trenches which averaged
1.2 gpt gold (PR07-03, Oct 19, 2007) These results contained many 1-4
metre intervals in the 2-4 gpt gold range; and

2.) Gold intercepts reported from the recently completed drilling program
which typically were collared at the bottom of these trenches and so do
not include the zone of higher-grade surface material and therefore may
understate the average grade of the entire zone.

This combination of surface channel sampling and drilling has now
delineated an open ended block of approximately 400 metres by 150 metres
in the "Big Pit" area. The holes drilled to date show an average grade of
the samples of 0.7 gpt gold over an average thickness of 15.5 metres.
However, to obtain a more accurate representation of the average gold
value for this block, the drill and surface results must be combined.
With the present density of surface sampling it is difficult to estimate
an exact overall average grade of the combined surface and drilled
material but it appears likely to exceed the 0.7 gpt reported from the
drill holes alone, as the average grade of all surface samples is 1.2 gpt.

The average mineralized width and gold grade of the following holes in
the approximately 450 metre by 150 metre block in the "Big Pit Area" is
as follows:

----------------------------------------------------------------
Average Width Average Gold Grade (g/t)
(metres)
----------------------------------------------------------------
"Big Pit" 15.5 0.7
Mineralization
----------------------------------------------------------------
Includes Drill CD-001,2,6,7,8,10,11,12,13,13A,14, 27
Holes The average width in these holes varies from 8-
31 metres and the average grade from 0.2 to 2.1
gpt gold
----------------------------------------------------------------

Every hole that the Company has drilled into this low angle structural
zone has contained anomalous gold values and HDG reconnaissance has now
found this same structural environment more than three kilometres to the
west and one kilometre to the east of the Big Pit area. This comprises a
very large target area within the important gold hosting environment near
the ductile-brittle structural transition.

Reconnaissance efforts are ongoing on the large land position, which HDG
controls in northern Sonora with several areas having been identified for
follow up work. The evaluation of this 448 square kilometre land package
will continue over the coming months and HDG is confident that additional
targets will be generated for follow up efforts. The Company's plan is to
complete the next stage of reconnaissance exploring for potentially
thicker intervals of mineralization within the low angle structural
setting and then conduct an RC (reverse circulation) drill program
tentatively set for the fall. Now that target geology has been better
defined by core drilling, the addition of RC techniques should allow for
faster and cheaper testing of the numerous targets that HDG has added.

The Company has recently also observed a possible coarse gold, or "nugget
effect" sampling phenomenon at Canasta Dorada. This is based on the
re-assaying of several intervals of drill core for check sampling, and
the assay results from holes CD-07-013 and CD-07-013A, which are twin
holes. The collars of these two holes are approximately 1 metre apart, at
the same elevation, and they have the identical azimuth/inclination. The
down-hole geology is essentially the same. However, the assay results are
quite different (see comparison below) and may imply a potential upside
to the drilling program to date:

Hole # From (m) To (m) Length (m) Gold grade (g/t)
------ ------- ------ ---------- ----------------
CD-07-013 2.3 20.0 17.7 0.449

CD-07-013A 0.0 25.5 25.5 1.087

The Company is currently developing a sampling program to determine
the extent of the coarse gold sampling phenomenon, which will include
re-assaying the coarse rejects from the core samples using a much larger
sample size, both from previous samples and in the future programs. These
tests may lead to a re-evaluation of gold grades intersected in the
previously reported drilling program.

The remaining holes in the Placer and Pique Viejo areas to the south of
the "Big Pit Area" all intersected narrow intervals of low grade gold
mineralization typically in the 0.1 -0.5 gpt gold range with occasional
greater than 1 gpt assays on individual samples. These results continue
to show that we are in a large area of gold mineralization requiring
further exploration to pinpoint areas of higher grade and thicknesses.

The Company is a mineral exploration company that acquires and explores
mineral properties, primarily gold, copper and silver, in North America.
The three major properties held by HDG are the flagship Canasta Dorada
gold property in Sonora, Mexico, the Gold Lake porphyry
copper-gold-molybdenum property in New Mexico and the Monitor
copper-silver property in Arizona.

Assays at Canasta Dorada were performed by International Plasma
Laboratories ("IPL") and ALS Chemex ("ALS") , both ISO 9001:2000
certified laboratories. Gold is analyzed by the G313 method (IPL) and
Au-AA23 method (ALS) that includes fire assay of a 30 g sample with an AA
finish.

The Qualified Person on the Canasta Dorada project is George Klemmick,
Exploration Manager and a certified professional geologist. He has
reviewed the content of this press release.

Please see High Desert Gold Corporation's website,
www.highdesertgoldcorp.com, for maps and drill hole locations.

Certain statements contained herein constitute "forward-looking
statements". Forward-looking statements look into the future and provide
an opinion as to the effect of certain events and trends on the business.
Forward-looking statements may include words such as "plans," "intends,"
"anticipates," "should," "estimates," "expects," "believes," "indicates,"
"targeting," "suggests," "potential," "interpretation" and similar
expressions. Information concerning the interpretation of drill results
also may be considered forward-looking statements, as such information
constitutes a prediction of what mineralization might be found to be
present if and when a project is actually developed. These
forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and entail
various risks and uncertainties. Actual results may materially differ
from expectations, if known and unknown risks or uncertainties affect our
business, or if our estimates or assumptions prove inaccurate. Except as
required by law, HDG assumes no obligation to update or revise any
forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future
events or any other reason.

Contacts:
High Desert Gold Corporation
Richard Doran
Executive Vice President, Investor Relations
(303) 584-0606
(303) 758-2063 (FAX)
Email: rdoran@highdesertgoldcorp.com
Website: www.highdesertgoldcorp.com

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