Highland Closes Tranche 1 of $20 Million Private Placement

HIGHLAND RESOURCES INC.

May 23, 2012 Trading Symbol: HI

NEWS RELEASE

Highland Closes Tranche 1 of $20 Million Private Placement

Vancouver, B.C. ... Highland Resources Inc. (the “Company”) announces it has closed Tranche 1 of its recently announced non-brokered private placement (see news release of May 4, 2012), through the issuance of 59,979,250 Units at a price of $0.08 per Unit, for gross proceeds of $4,798,340.00. Each Unit is comprised of one common share of Highland and one transferable common share purchase warrant, each whole warrant exercisable for a period of two years from the date of issue to purchase one common share of Highland at a price of $0.15 per share.

Finders’ fees in the aggregate amount of $223,864.00 and 2,971,625 shares were paid to various finders for portions of the financing attributable to their efforts. All of the securities issued pursuant to this offering are restricted from trading for a period of four months and one day to September 17, 2012.

The Company expects to close the balance of the private placement shortly.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Signed “Robert Eadie”

Robert Eadie, President, Chief Executive Officer and Director

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Telephone: 1-604-602-4935 Facsimile: 1-604-602-4936 Contact: Robert Eadie

Neither the 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.

750 - 580 Hornby Street, Box 113, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6C 3B6 Telephone: (604) 602-4935 Fax: (604) 602-4936