Ventana Discovers New Silver Zone and Potential Significant Extension to the Las Mercedes Zone

VANCOUVER, Dec. 15 /CNW/ - Ventana Gold Corp. (TSX: VEN) ("Ventana" or the "Company") is pleased to announce results from seven additional exploration holes drilled on multiple zones within the La Mascota Southwest extension at the La Bodega gold project in Colombia. A complete listing of drill intercepts and details on the cross sections are available on the Company's website at www.ventanagold.com.

Highlights

• A newly recognized, silver-rich oxide zone has been discovered in the La Mascota Southwest Extension where hole 320 returned 34.9 metres of 278.23 g/t silver and 1.04 g/t gold.  This area is characterized by elevated silver grades contained in a flat-lying and near-surface zone.
• Hole 320 returned 24.8 metres of 10.15 g/t gold 100 metres south of the La Mascota trend and in line with the Las Mercedes zone defining a potential significant extension of this mineralization. Additionally, hole 359 returned 4.2 metres of 5.62 g/t gold further confirming that the Las Mercedes mineralized zone continues to the southwest.
• La Baja hole 328 returned 29.1 metres of 4.58 g/t gold and hole 340 returned 36 metres of 5.65 g/t gold.

Details

Hole 320, on section 8950-2 in the La Mascota Southwest Extension is the first exploration hole drilled from a location approximately 100 metres south of the projected La Mascota trend. A low-angle, silicified horizon was intercepted starting at 79.1 metres drilled depth (40 metres vertical depth) which returned 34.9 metres of 278.23 grams per tonne silver and 1.04 grams per tonne gold. The silver mineralization overlaps but does not correlate with gold.  In conjunction with previous exploration results in this area, Ventana now believes it may be defining a separate mineralizing event. This same horizon was encountered in other holes in the vicinity including hole 219 on section 8900, which intersected 25.5 metres of 285 grams per tonne silver and 0.76 grams per tonne gold starting at 89.5 metres drilled depth and hole 285 on section 8850 which intersected 12.6 metres of 150 grams per tonne silver and 0.82 grams per tonne gold starting at 82 metres drilled depth. This newly recognized type of silver-dominant mineralization appears to occur beneath a sub-horizontal intrusive sill, is predominantly oxidized and represents a new manto style of mineralization.  

Two holes intercepted mineralization that appears to be extending the Las Mercedes trend to the southwest.  Hole 359 on section 9900-1 intersected 4.2 metres of 5.62 grams per tonne gold. Hole 320 that intercepted the silver-rich horizon, also intersected 24.8 metres of 10.15 grams per tonne gold.   This area of mineralization is in line with the Las Mercedes trend and appears to be a significant southwest extension of this zone. Subject to further drilling, the Las Mercedes zone could potentially now extend for 1,000 metres along strike.  Like La Mascota, Las Mercedes remains open along strike and at depth.  Please see the attached map for further detail.

Hole 341 on section 8650-2 returned several good intercepts, including 52 metres of 1.77 grams per tonne gold, and was drilled down-dip from the previously reported hole 330, which returned 91.2 metres of 1.31 grams per tonne gold.  Also notable is hole 353 on section 8650-2 which intersected 6.0 metres of 6.03 grams per tonne gold.

Drilling at La Baja continues to intercept better than average grade mineralization and continues to confirm continuity of the La Mascota zone to the southwest.  Hole 328 on section 9150-2 intersected 29.1 metres of 4.58 grams per tonne gold and was lost before target depth but was re-drilled as hole 340.  Hole 340 deviated and intercepted the zone 20 metres southwest of hole 328 returning 36 metres of 5.65 grams per tonne gold.

These latest results represent exploration in new areas within the sparsely drilled La Mascota Southwest Extension and demonstrate that the mineralization tenor remains robust as drilling extends to the southwest. Drilling continues throughout the La Bodega project with 10 drills which are engaged in exploration of newer target areas and infill to upgrade the initial resource from inferred to indicated and measured.

The intercepts from the reported drill holes are reported below:

Drill Hole #	From (metres)	To (metres)	Drill Intercept (metres)	True Width	Gold (g/t)		Silver (g/t)		Copper (%)
DDH-10-LB-320	79.10	114.00	34.90	30.2	1.04		278.23		0.03
	208.00	209.00	1.00	0.7	2.02		18.15		0.03
	270.00	271.00	1.00	0.7	4.80		5.19		0.14
	284.00	293.00	9.00	6.4	2.24		12.99		0.09
	330.60	355.40	24.80	17.7	10.15		30.54		0.27
INCLUDES	331.50	334.06	2.56	1.8	14.06		119.13		1.80
AND	351.12	353.56	2.44	1.7	67.70		80.92		0.08
	360.30	384.65	24.35	17.4	3.28		24.04		0.21
DDH-10-LB-328	276.00	305.10	29.10	23.6	4.58		46.30		0.44
INCLUDES	287.50	293.50	6.00	4.9	7.62		132.69		1.40
DDH-10-LB-340	169.40	171.29	1.89	1.5	2.14		7.12		0.03
	221.28	223.41	2.13	1.7	2.46		11.71		0.06
	227.07	229.00	1.93	1.5	2.14		28.74		0.18
	245.00	246.00	1.00	0.8	2.12		56.70		0.50
	283.00	319.00	36.00	28.5	5.65		34.36		0.19
INCLUDES	295.00	304.00	9.00	7.1	10.29		103.82		0.68
	345.00	347.00	2.00	1.6	4.46		1.95		0.01
	453.00	454.00	1.00	0.8	3.57		0.42		0.01
DDH-10-LB-341	170.10	171.10	1.00	0.6	3.55		25.90		0.10
	207.00	209.00	2.00	1.2	15.50		14.15		0.02
	259.00	311.00	52.00	30.5	1.77		11.40		0.07
INCLUDES	301.00	303.10	2.10	1.2	19.80		18.00		0.03
DDH-10-LB-344	139.00	140.00	1.00	0.5	2.93		303.00		0.94
	215.00	223.00	8.00	4.3	2.78		16.24		0.04
	289.45	290.96	1.51	0.8	39.10		179.69		0.97
	324.91	326.00	1.09	0.6	206.00		63.22		0.04
DDH-10-LB-353	165.00	171.00	6.00	2.8	6.03		7.94		0.06
	294.00	296.00	2.00	0.9	2.72		14.73		0.02
DDH-10-LB-359	79.00	83.20	4.20	2.7	5.62		46.78		0.82
	116.00	117.00	1.00	0.6	2.95		0.86		0.01
	145.00	146.00	1.00	0.6	2.28		1.56		0.01

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 calculated assuming a 70 degree dip for the mineralized structure.

Review by Qualified Person, Quality Control and Reports
The results of Ventana's drilling program have been reviewed, verified and compiled by Jon Lehmann, L.P.G., a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101). Mr. Lehmann has over 25 years of mineral exploration experience, is a Licensed Professional Geologist in the State of Washington and a member in good standing of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.

To ensure reliable sample results Ventana has a rigorous QA/QC program in place that monitors the chain-of-custody of samples and includes the insertion of blanks, duplicates, and certified reference standards in each batch of samples. Core is photographed and sawed in half with one half retained in a secured facility for verification purposes. Sample preparation (crushing and pulverizing) is performed at an independent local laboratory established by a joint effort between the regional environmental permitting agency and the German Geological Survey, and at the Colombian preparation laboratory of ALS Chemex Laboratories. Prepared samples are direct-shipped to ALS Chemex Laboratories in Lima, Peru, an ISO 9001:2000 certified laboratory, for analysis.

Independent NI 43-101 technical reports have been prepared by Samuel Engineering, Inc., dated May 1, 2010 for the La Bodega project and by EurGeol Miller O'Prey, P.Geo., dated June 14, 2008 for the nearby California-Vetas project, to provide an updated review of the exploration activities that have occurred on the projects. These reports are posted on Ventana's website at www.ventanagold.com.

About Ventana

Ventana is a Vancouver-based mineral exploration and development company with mineral rights to 4,590 hectares of exploration property in northeastern Colombia. The Company has two project areas, La Bodega and Cal-Vetas, of which the flagship La Bodega project contains multiple high-grade zones of gold, silver and copper mineralization. Ventana has announced the results to the project's scoping study and completed its first inferred mineral resource estimate which includes 27 million tonnes grading 3.9 grams per tonne gold, 21.5 grams per tonne silver, and 0.14% copper for a total of 3.5 million ounces of gold, 19.2 million ounces of silver and 84.9 million pounds of copper. There is significant potential to expand the resource and the Company intends to continue aggressive exploration at the project both from surface and underground.

Ventana's shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol VEN.

To view map, please click http://files.newswire.ca/914/VentanaMap.doc

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-looking Information

Certain of the statements made and information contained in this press release may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. All information and statements which are not historical fact constitute forward-looking information and, in many cases, can be identified by words such as "may", "will", "expect", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "potential", or other similar terminology. The forward-looking information contained in this press release is based on the reasonable expectations and beliefs of management as at the date of this press release and involves numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties, both general and specific to Ventana and the industry in which the Company operates. Such assumptions, risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to future prices of gold, the factual results of current exploration, development and mining activities, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be evaluated as well as those factors disclosed in Ventana's documents filed from time to time with the securities regulators in the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results, performance or achievements of the Company, or industry results, may vary materially from those described in this press release. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as otherwise required by law, Ventana does not intend to and assumes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, plans, events or otherwise.

Cautionary Note Concerning Scoping Study and Inferred Mineral Resources

The scoping study is an assessment that is preliminary in nature and includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the preliminary assessment in the scoping study will be realized. Mineral resources that are not classified as mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

For additional information please visit www.ventanagold.com or contact:
Letitia Cornacchia, VP Investor Relations
tel [phone]
email[email protected]