Mr. Nils Engelstad reports

UPDATE ON LITIGATION WITH TNR GOLD CORP.

TNR Gold Corp. and its subsidiary, Solitario Argentina, S.A., have amended their pleadings to add a new claim in the continuing litigation regarding a portion of Minera Andes Inc.'s Los Azules copper project in Argentina. See "New Claim by TNR" below.

Minera Andes rejects all of TNR's claims and will vigorously defend its position in court. Unfortunately, TNR's amended claim has caused the trial, which was scheduled for June, 2011, to be delayed.

Background to the TNR dispute

The project was, until the fall of 2009, subject to an option agreement between Xstrata Copper nd Minera Andes.

In the fall of 2009, Xstrata elected not to exercise its option to back in to the project and subsequently transferred all properties then held by Xstrata (and forming part of the project) to Minera Andes. Minera Andes now owns 100 per cent of the project.

Certain portions of the northern part of the project that were formerly held by Xstrata and transferred to Minera Andes following the termination of the option agreement remain subject to an underlying option agreement between Xstrata and TNR.

The TNR agreement provided that TNR had the right to back in to up to 25 per cent of the subject properties, exercisable by TNR upon the satisfaction of certain conditions within 36 months of Xstrata exercising its option, including the completion of a feasibility study.

The 36-month period following the exercise of the option expired on April 23, 2010, and no feasibility study has been completed on the project.

First claim -- October, 2008

In addition to an existing unresolved claim against Xstrata regarding a mineral tenure known as Escorpio IV (located to the west of and not forming any port of the Los Azules deposit), TNR claimed in 2008 that the above back-in right is not subject to the 36-month timeline that appears in the executed agreement. In fact, TNR claims the 36-month limit was never the commercial intention of the parties. In particular, TNR claims the 36-month requirement was added by Xstrata, overlooked by TNR (and its lawyers) and not discovered for a number of years all the while Xstrata made payments on its option.

Second claim -- April, 2010

In April, 2010, TNR claimed it had the right to back in to the subject properties prior to the expiry of the option period on account that it could waive the requirement that a feasibility study be completed. Minera Andes rejected and continues to reject TNR's ability to back in to the project (see Minera's news releases dated April 1, 2010, and April 26, 2010).

The foregoing claims were consolidated into a single action in the fall of 2010 and were scheduled to go to trial in June, 2011. This has been delayed on account of TNR amending its claim (see below).

New claim by TNR

Third claim -- April, 2011

In April, 2011, TNR proposed, and was subsequently allowed, to amend its claim to claim that Xstrata and Minera Andes did not complete the required exploration expenditures of $1-million required under the TNR agreement for Xstrata's exercise of its option on April 23, 2007, to acquire the subject properties.

On that basis, TNR and Solitario are advancing a claim to seek the return of the subject properties, or alternatively, damages against Xstrata or Minera Andes.

Minera Andes rejects TNR's claim that insufficient expenditures were made.

This news release has been submitted by Nils Engelstad, vice-president corporate affairs of Minera Andes.

Technical information

Technical information about the Los Azules project in this news release was derived from the report entitled "Canadian National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report Updated Preliminary Assessment, Los Azules Project, San Juan Province, Argentina," with an effective date of Dec. 1, 2010 (released Dec. 16, 2010), prepared by Kathleen Altman, PhD, PE; Robert Sim, PGeo; Bruce Davis, PhD, FAusIMM; Richard Jemielita, PhD, MIMMM; William Rose, PE; and Scott Elfen, PE. Each of the Los Azules report authors are independent of Minera Andes and qualified persons, each as defined by National Instrument 43-101 "Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects." The Los Azules report is available under the corporation's profile on SEDAR.

Mineral                                Contained
resource          Tonnes    Copper        copper    Gold    Silver
category       (millions)        %   (billion lb)    g/t       g/t

Indicated            137      0.73           2.2    0.07       1.7
Inferred             900      0.52          10.3    0.07       1.7

Cut-off grade of 0.35 per cent copper. 

We seek Safe Harbor.