News Release: January 27th, 2005 Update of Mexican Exploration Activities   San Carlos Cu-Au-Ag Project, Mexico The San Carlos Project is located in northeast Mexico and has been optioned to Hawkeye Gold and Diamond Inc. (Hawkeye) on terms whereby Hawkeye can earn a total of 60% of the San Carlos project by issuing a total of 800,000 shares to Almaden and incurring exploration expenditures of US$4 Million over seven years. Hawkeye is committed to spending US$350,000 in the first year. Hawkeye has informed Almaden that it has carried out a work program designed to evaluate the potential for Carbonate Replacement Deposit (CRD) style and copper-gold skarn mineralization around the 9 km periphery of a Tertiary intrusion emplaced into a thick section of Cretaceous carbonates during November through mid December 2004. CRD's account for a significant portion of mineral wealth within the Republic of Mexico including deposits whose production and reserves reportedly total in excess of 400 Mt of silver-lead-zinc ore with appreciable copper and gold credits. The deposits are clustered along the Mexican fold and thrust belt within a 1600 by 450 km wide corridor extending through the east and central portions of the country. The two closest major mining districts to the San Carlos property are the Conception del Oro and the Charcas Districts situated roughly 350 km west and southwest respectively. These districts have reported production exceeding 75 Mt. The average production grade at Conception del Oro is reported to be 12.8% zinc, 5.8% lead and 275 g/t silver in 40 plus Mt. The San Carlos project area occupies a localized region of relatively rugged topography; however outcrop exposure is relatively sparse due to extensive jungle and talus cover. Hawkeye informed Almaden that the first phase exploration program consisted of approximately 31 km of line cutting over four square kilometers around the eastern and northern parts of the property. Detailed mapping, prospecting and soil geochemical surveys were almost completely restricted to the grid due to the extensive peripheral cover. A twenty-one kilometer ground geophysical Induced Polarization (IP) survey was also completed. An excerpt of Hawkeye's news release of January 25, 2005 follows: Three styles of mineralization were encountered during the Phase I program and they comprise Cu-W-Au skarn, Ag-Au quartz veining and quartz healed fracture filling, Ag-Au-Zn sulphide veining and Ag-Au-Pb-Zn-Cu siderite/jasperoid veining. The order in which the styles of mineralization are listed is somewhat reflective of their proximity to the main intrusive body; skarns forming proximally and siderite/jasperoid veins distally to the intrusion. Highlights for rock samples collected are listed in Tables 1 to 4. Table 1 Cu-W-Au Skarn: Cu-W-Au skarn mineralization was documented in both the eastern and northern parts of the grid. At the eastern locale, it occurs as tan weathering, finely banded, limonitic brown garnet-magnetite skarn. A 0.5 m chip sample taken across the recessive skarn exposure yielded 2.22 g/t Au, 9.9 g/t Ag, 0.20% Cu and 60 ppm W. Abundant banded, hematitic, manganiferous jasperoid containing moderate amounts of limonite and minor magnetite was discovered in the northern part of the property emanating from a drainage near the intrusive/carbonate contact. A series of samples collected yielded elevated values for copper (to 0.18%), tungsten (to 0.10%) and gold (to 0.20 g/t). Table 2 Au-Ag Quartz Veins: Silica flooding occurs at several locales within the main monzonite stock in association with fracture zones developed in the vicinity of the Cu-Au skarn roof pendants. A sample of this material collected from the San Narciso mine site yielded 2.9 g/t Ag, 0.26% Cu and 0.10 g/t Au. In the eastern portion of the property, gold and silver values of 8.33 g/t and 180 g/t respectively, were obtained from finely laminated manganiferous limonite containing moderate amounts of dark grey quartz lenses and white quartz fragments. This material is believed to be associated with silica healed fracture zones within the carbonates. Similarly, a 3 cm wide piece of white quartz vein talus containing minor dark brown oxide pits and trace amounts of disseminated pyrite yielded 4.27 g/t Au and 19.9 g/t Ag. Both samples were collected from the central portion of a gold anomaly identified by previous operators in the vicinity of a soil sample site which reportedly yielded 1.93 g/t Au. Table 3 Au-Ag-Zn Sulphide Vein / Silicification Zones: A series of old workings also discovered within the eastern portion of the grid consists of three square pits excavated along a 330° fracture zone which is associated with highly silicified grey porous limestone. Insitu smithsonite samples collected from a 20 cm wide vein in one of the pits returned 37.5% Zn with anomalous accessory lead, silver and copper. A 1.2 m chip sample taken across a silicified hanging wall exposure from one of the pits yielded 3.44 g/t Au, 4.7 g/t Ag and 1.44% Zn. The zone is exposed intermittently for roughly 25 m before it is obscured by jungle and talus. A 1 cm massive pyrite veinlet cutting massive limestone at a similar orientation was documented 400 m north of the workings. Chips of this material collected returned 1.46 g/t Au, 41.2 g/t Ag and 1.28% Zn. Table 4 Au-Ag-Pb-Zn Siderite / Jasperoid Veins: Siderite/jasperoid veins and vein talus were documented within the eastern portion of the property up to 1.5 km from the main monzonite stock. They are steeply dipping, consist of strongly manganiferous red-brown siderite and jasperoid with moderate concentrations of limonite and trace galena. They are generally between 20 cm and 30 cm wide. Samples collected from four sites returned up to 3.73 g/t Au, 37.2 g/t Ag, 1.52% Pb and 5.63% Zn. The Cu-W-Au mineralization is constrained mostly to the northern portion of the property while the mineralization described in tables 2 to 4 was collected from a 1.5 by 1.5 km area in the eastern part of the claim block. Soil geochemical sampling was conducted within a four square km area around the north and eastern periphery of the San Jose monzonite intrusion. The elements gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, manganese and arsenic were the primary considerations for defining areas of geochemical interest. Table 5 lists these elements and anomalous thresholds. Table 5 Geochemical Thresholds: The most widely anomalous element of significance for CRD style mineralization is zinc, with values greater than 100 ppm forming an intermittent linear north trending band 3 km long and 1.3 km wide. Clusters of moderately anomalous response outline northwest trends up to 1 km long and 100 m wide. One of these anomalies is believed to coincide with the southeastern extension of the smithsonite silicification zone. Manganese and arsenic response are also largely coincident with zinc while silver and lead values are weakly elevated but do form small clusters that are coincident within the outer periphery of the grid. Gold geochemical response is strongest in the east central portion of the grid, in an area sampled by previous operators. The anomaly is situated approximately 200 m east of the main monzonite intrusion. Gold values greater than 150 ppb reportedly outlined a continuous northerly trend some 900 m long by up to 450 m wide with peak values up to 2.09 g/t. A 500 m by 400 m section of the grid was resampled in 2004 to test the reproducibility of these numbers. Within the test block, sampling outlined a linear north trending anomaly roughly 400 m by 300 m in size with peak values up to 2.57 g/t Au and strong supporting values over 500 ppb Au. Silver response is also elevated and strongly coincident in this part of the grid with peak values of 23.6 g/t. The highest gold-silver bearing rock sample (8.33 g/t Au and 180 g/t Ag) was collected approximately 200 m south along strike of the anomaly. A total of 21 km of Induced Polarization survey was completed using a pole-dipole technique in a six to eight level array at 50 m slope chained intervals. The data is currently undergoing inversion modeling and interpretation which should be completed by the end of January. The IP crew has been mobilized back to the property to complete the survey over the existing grid and prepare infill lines in the vicinity of anomalies identified during the initial phase of ground geophysics. HAWKEYE is very encouraged with the results received to date from its San Carlos project. Historical exploration and production of the copper-gold skarn mineralization within the San Jose monzonite was successful primarily due to preservation of the surface exposures. Conversely, the CRD and peripheral copper-gold skarn mineralization, currently being explored by HAWKEYE, is most likely limited to non-outcropping. Mineralization discovered to date is considered to represent alteration commonly observed in the distal and upper portions of CRD systems. The lead-zinc-silver metal signature is also typical and further enhanced by strong gold support. Samples described above were collected under the supervision of Mr. Bill Wengzynowski P.ENG., and analyzed at ALS Chemex Labs of North Vancouver. Mr. Wengzynowski is also the Company's project Geological Engineer and qualified person (QP) in accordance with Canadian Securities Association (CSA) National Instrument (NI) 43-101. Almaden's management view these results as very encouraging and representative of a large magmatic hydrothermal system with potential to host several mineral deposit types including replacement Ag-Pb-Zn massive sulphides deposits and Cu-Au skarn deposits. [San Carlos +]   Galeana Au-Ag Project, Mexico Almaden has been informed by its joint venture partner Grid Capital Corp (Grid) that Grid has completed a diamond drill program on the Galeana gold-silver property in Chihuahua State, Mexico. Under terms of the joint venture with Almaden, Grid can earn a 60% interest in the Galeana property by spending US$2,000,000 and issuing 400,000 shares to Almaden. Grid has informed Almaden that the drill program tested one of the vein systems identified on the property, the Miguel Ahumada zone. The Galeana property hosts three major classic epithermal banded quartz-adularia vein systems, the San Miguel-Ahumada-Estrella de Oro, the Faldo Norte and the San Geronimo. All have had limited historic production prior to the Mexican revolution when all mining activity ceased. Mapping, sampling and alteration mineralogic and petrographic analyses of the veins in the Galeana area has resulted in the interpretation that the exposed veins represent a high level within the original hydrothermal system. This interpretation coupled with the identification of high gold grades in fragments found in breccia bodies identified as part of the Miguel Ahumada vein system, suggest that the potential to identify high grade gold and silver ore shoots in the veins may increase with depth. An excerpt from Grid's December 26th news release follows: The drill program, consisting of 3 diamond drill holes totaling 560 meters, tested the San Miguel Ahumada zone, one of three major vein structures on the property. All three holes intersected zones of brecciation with local zones of silicification and minor quartz veining. The highest value was intersected in hole GAD04-05, where a 0.73 meter core interval from 129.12 meters to 129.85 meters assayed 5.01 g/t gold. Almaden is waiting for a detailed geological report from Grid which would better enable an assessment of the results. Grid informed Almaden that it's drill program on the Galeana property was carried under the direction of Mr. Juan Caelles, Ph.D., P. Geo., a qualified person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 and that samples were sent to ALS Chemex Labs in North Vancouver for analysis. [Galeana +]     ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Duane Poliquin The Toronto Stock Exchange has not reviewed nor accepted responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the contents of this news release which has been prepared by management. Statements contained in this news release that are not historical facts are forward looking statements as that term is defined in the private securities litigation reform act of 1995. Such forward -looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from estimated results. Such risks and uncertainties are detailed in the Company's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.