Great Basin Gold Completes Rusaf Acquisition: Financial News

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(MARKET WIRE)--Apr 7, 2008 -- Great Basin Gold Ltd. ("Great Basin Gold" or the "Company") (Toronto:GBG.TO - News)(AMEX:GBN - News)(JSE: GBG) announces that the agreement it entered into on February 14, 2008 to acquire the remaining 63% of the fully diluted equity shares of Rusaf Gold Limited ("Rusaf"), for a total consideration of $14.4 million payable in approximately 4.9 million Great Basin Gold common shares ("the acquisition"), has been successfully closed. The exchange ratio for the acquisition was one Great Basin Gold share for every 4.5 Rusaf shares.

The acquisition terms also provide for additional Great Basin Gold shares to be issued in the first three years from closing, contingent upon gold discoveries above a threshold of 500,000 ounces in size on certain mineral prospects formerly held by Rusaf. In the event of such discoveries, Great Basin Gold will issue shares valued at the higher of the current or then-prevailing market price to the former Rusaf shareholders on the basis of valuing these gold ounces at US$15/oz for inferred resources and US$40/oz for measured and indicated resources (subject to a minimum average cut-off grade of 1.5 grams per tonne or 0.04 oz per ton). The Company has also agreed to spend a minimum of $7 million and up to a maximum of $19 million to explore the newly acquired properties during this period, depending on independent advice as to the likelihood of exploration success.

Ferdi Dippenaar, President and CEO, commented: "We are pleased to have completed the regulatory process and are busy integrating these assets within Great Basin Gold's pipeline of exploration projects. We have retained the operational management of Rusaf and incentivised the teams to accelerate the exploration programs underway. Rusaf has approximately $8 million in its Treasury which will fund the short and medium term exploration programs. Drilling is currently underway on a number of these properties with results expected in the second half of 2008."

Ferdi Dippenaar, President and CEO

Cautionary and Forward Looking Statement Information

This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address possible future commercial production, reserve potential, exploration drilling results, development, feasibility or exploitation activities and events or developments that Great Basin Gold expects to occur are forward-looking statements. 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 or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and those actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on the Company, Investors should review the Company's annual Form 40-F filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and its home jurisdiction filings that are available at www.sedar.com.

No regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained in this news release.