Ventana Gold Corp

Ventana Gold Corp. (TSX: VEN) ("Ventana" or "the Company") is pleased to announce drill results from 14 additional holes on the La Bodega gold project in Colombia, including silver and copper assays as well as gold.

Nine of the new holes were infill holes in the main La Mascota zone, three were exploration holes drilled on the Coloro property, one was drilled on the El Cuatro property, and one was drilled in the Las Mercedes zone. Refer to the attached map and cross sections for details: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/0113VEN.pdf

The infill drilling at La Mascota continues to demonstrate good continuity of high-grade mineralization both along strike and down-dip. Within this zone are areas containing abundant hydrothermal breccias that exhibit very high grades as reported in previous drill holes and exemplified in this batch of results by hole 169 (section 9550E), which cut 93.5 metres of 15.83 grams per tonne gold, including a particularly high grade section of 9.6 metres averaging 121.41 grams per tonne gold. This hole cut across the structure at an oblique angle and the true thickness of the structure is interpreted to be approximately 18 to 20 metres.

The other infill holes verified the high-grade nature of the La Mascota deposit including hole 160 (72.0 metres of 9.67 grams per tonne gold), hole 170 (12.7 metres of 18.77 grams per tonne gold), hole 174 (13.0 metres of 13.28 grams per tonne gold), and hole 179 (14.0 metres of 20.50 grams per tonne gold). The true thickness of these intercepts varies depending on the angle that the drill hole cut across the structure, and range from 20% to 90% of the reported drilled interval.

Holes 132, 139 and 149 were drilled on section 9150E, a 100-metre step-out into the Coloro property, and intercepted encouraging mineralization with drill intercepts of 8.4 metres of 10.61 grams per tonne gold, 5.0 metres of 6.72 grams per tonne gold, and 23.0 metres of 1.85 grams per tonne gold respectively. Drilling at the Coloro property has been hindered by access difficulties and property boundaries, however drilling efforts will be accelerated in this area and additional holes are planned in the near term.

Hole 166 (section 8900E), was drilled in the El Cuatro property from the same drill pad as hole 161. It intercepted several thin, mineralized structures including 7.0 metres of 2.70 grams per tonne gold, roughly 100 metres down-dip from the interval intercepted in hole 161 (26.0 metres of 1.14 grams per tonne gold). This structure is currently interpreted to be a split of the La Mascota structure and additional drilling is planned to test another structure situated 100 metres to the south.

Hole 177 was the first hole drilled in the Las Mercedes target area in a southerly direction to test the mineralization previously encountered in hole 68 (38.0 metres of 2.41 grams per tonne gold). It intercepted an interval of 3.0 metres of 14.33 grams per tonne gold followed shortly thereafter by 20.0 metres of 0.83 grams per tonne gold and appears to confirm a northerly dip of the structure. Hole 188 is in progress testing this structure further down-dip.

Ventana currently has nine drills active at La Bodega and is part of Ventana's ongoing gold exploration program in the California-Vetas gold mining district of northeast Colombia. Ventana's exploration activities are currently concentrated on the high-grade La Mascota zone. Property acquisitions in early 2009 consolidated a land position that now totals 4,573 hectares and 2.1 kilometres of strike extent.

Mineralization at the La Bodega project occurs as a series of north-northwest-dipping parallel-sheeted vein zones, breccias and mineralized faults hosted within a broad, northeast trending regional fault zone. Select drill hole intercepts are reported below:


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                                                   GOLD     SILVER
                   FROM        TO   INTERVAL     (grams/    (grams/  COPPER
DRILL HOLE NO.  (metres)  (metres)   (metres)     tonne)     tonne)      (%)
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DDH-09-LB-132    330.00    338.40       8.40      10.61      38.18     0.06
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DDH-09-LB-139    136.00    141.00       5.00       6.72     387.81     0.11
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DDH-09-LB-149    374.00    397.00      23.00       1.85      13.82     0.03
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DDH-09-LB-155    283.00    305.00      22.00       4.82      24.31     0.08
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DDH-09-LB-160    267.00    339.00      72.00       9.67      35.51     0.19
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DDH-09-LB-162    273.50    282.90       9.40       3.28      39.01     0.55
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DDH-09-LB-166    415.50    422.75       7.25       2.70      99.48     0.05
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DDH-09-LB-169    202.00    295.50      93.50      15.83      47.35     0.17
                 306.50    326.50      20.00       4.08      57.02     0.24
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DDH-09-LB-170    162.00    174.65      12.65      18.77      12.56     0.09
                 187.70    285.10      97.40       2.37      13.18     0.09
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DDH-09-LB-174    256.00    269.00      13.00      13.28      58.67     0.18
                 280.00    327.00      57.00       3.29      21.85     0.13
                 386.00    406.00      20.00       3.68      26.74     0.06
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DDH-09-LB-177     57.00     60.00       3.00      14.33       9.77     0.16
                  68.00     88.08      20.08       0.83       2.50     0.02
                 343.00    348.00       5.00       3.99       1.96     0.01
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DDH-09-LB-178    117.06    173.00      55.94       1.88      16.97     0.04
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DDH-09-LB-179    173.00    196.07      23.07       5.88      25.61     0.14
                 245.97    260.00      14.03      20.50      34.10     0.24
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DDH-09-LB-181    172.00    185.00      13.00       2.28       9.70     0.08
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Drill intercepts are based on a 0.5 gram/tonne gold cut-off with no upper
cut. Drill intercept lengths are down-hole lengths of mineralization with
true widths ranging between 20%-90% of the reported down-hole lengths
depending on hole angle.