Coal

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Hillsborough Resources: Hillsborough Announces Letter of Intent Signed with Anglo Coal on the Development of Hillsborough's Northeast BC Coal Properties

NEWS RELEASE TRANSMITTED BY CCNMATTHEWS

Hillsborough Resources Limited

October 5, 2005 - 09:52:38 ET

Hillsborough Resources: Hillsborough Announces Letter of Intent Signed with
Anglo Coal on the Development of Hillsborough's Northeast BC Coal Properties


VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(CCNMatthews - Oct. 5, 2005) - Hillsborough
Resources Limited (TSX:HLB) is pleased to announce that it has signed a
non-binding Letter of Intent ("LOI") with Anglo Coal, a division of Anglo
American plc (LSE:AAL), providing for the possible acquisition by Anglo Coal
of a minority equity position in Hillsborough and for a joint venture or joint
ventures for the exploration and development of nine of eleven of
Hillsborough's Northeast British Columbia metallurgical and PCI coal
properties, including the Five Cabin property. The transaction envisaged by
the LOI remains subject to the negotiation and signature of a definitive
agreement by the parties and the definitive agreement, if signed, will be
subject to a number of conditions precedent, including due diligence by Anglo
Coal, approvals by the boards of Anglo American plc and Hillsborough, and the
approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange. Further details of the proposed
transaction will be released once a definitive agreement is signed.

David Slater, President & CEO of Hillsborough Resources stated, "We are very
pleased to have been able to align ourselves with Anglo Coal on the potential
development of our Northeast metallurgical coal properties. While we were
quite prepared to go it alone, the presence of a highly professional
organisation like Anglo adds exceptional depth to our ability to market the
product, and Anglo's expertise will be invaluable in facilitating the
development of a mining project of the scale we envisage for Five Cabin."

Anglo Coal is an international coal mining company, with interests in
operations in South Africa, Australia, Venezuela and Colombia producing in
excess of 90 million tonnes of coal per annum. The Anglo American group of
companies is involved in the mining of, among others, gold, platinum,
diamonds, iron ore and other industrial minerals.

Hillsborough Resources Limited is a coal mining company that operates the
Quinsam underground thermal coal mine in Campbell River, British Columbia
serving the local and west-coast U.S. cement industry, and the Crossville
underground coal mine in Tennessee serving the regional power utility and
industrial markets. We are also developing substantial metallurgical coal
properties near Tumbler Ridge in the Northeast of British Columbia, as well as
the Bingay Creek metallurgical coal project in the Elk Valley region of
Southeast British Columbia.

"David J. Slater"

President & Chief Executive Officer

This release may contain forward-looking statements regarding the Company's
business or financial condition. All statements in this release, other than
statements of historical facts, that address future production, reserve
potential, exploration drilling, exploitation activities and events or
developments that the Company expects 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. Actual results could
differ materially from those described in this news release as a result of
factors including but not limited to the following: adverse exploration or
development results; adverse due diligence findings; re-assessments of
corporate or development objectives and requirements; additional technical
developments and considerations; unexpected increases in the costs of
producing coal, changes in international coal or transportation markets, a
rapid change in the value of the Canadian dollar particularly with respect to
the US dollar, a fundamental slow down in the North American, Asian or
worldwide economies; and other factors. Investors are cautioned that any such
statements are not guarantees of future performance and that actual results or
developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking
statements.



FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Hillsborough Resources Limited David Slater President & CEO [phone]
[phone]