Ventura Reports First Quarter Results and Advancement of Business Strategy

Ventura Gold Corp. (the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:VGO) completed the first quarter
of fiscal year 2008 (FY2008) at June 30, 2007 with $4.4 million in cash and
positive working capital of $4.2 million. The Company also reported in its
interim unaudited financial statements and management discussion and analysis
now filed on SEDAR that it earned net income of approximately $273,600 for its
first quarter ended June 30, 2007, primarily attributable to a non-cash foreign
exchange gain and non-cash unrealized gains on long-term investments (All
amounts are reported in US dollars except as otherwise indicated).


Highlights of these financial statements are discussed below:

- Long-term investments under Assets on the Balance Sheet totaled $1.35 million
at June 30, 2007, an increase of approximately $740,900 from fiscal year-end
March 31, 2007, as the Company made strategic investments in two exploration
companies, as discussed below.


- Commencement of surface mapping and sampling at the Inmaculada silver-gold
project in southern Peru, including a compilation of historical exploration
work, in order to design a drill program to commence in the third quarter of
calendar year 2007.


- In August 2007, Ventura started drilling on the prospective Gold Gulch
copper-gold project in Arizona, adjacent to the Phelps Dodge Morenci copper
mine.


- The Company made significant private placement investments in two privately
owned strategic exploration companies; Cdn$250,200 in Santa Barbara Resources
Ltd. with early-stage exploration properties in Ecuador and Cdn$225,000 in
African Aura Resources Limited with a portfolio of early-to-mid stage precious
metal exploration projects in Cameroon, Africa. Santa Barbara has directors in
common with the Company.


- Subsequent to the end of the quarter, the Board of Directors reorganized the
management of Ventura, naming Eric H. Edwards as the new President and Chief
Executive Officer, effective July 10, 2007. Stephen Kay, the previous President,
was appointed Executive Chairman. The Board also named Wendy Yang as Vice
President of Investor Relations and Scott Weger as Corporate Controller.


Financial and Exploration Activities Overview

During the first quarter of FY2008, the Company recorded non-cash foreign
exchange gains of approximately $324,000 as the Company has a significant amount
of cash in a Canadian dollar account and the Canadian dollar increased in value
relative to the US dollar. The majority of the unrealized gain in long-term
investments held in the first quarter resulted from an increase in the share
price of Aurea Mining, a publicly traded exploration company with properties in
Mexico and with whom the Company has a strategic project relationship.


Capitalized mineral exploration costs during the first quarter were
approximately $197,300, compared with $137,900 in the year ago quarter.
Exploration costs of $80,400 were incurred for surface mapping and sampling at
the Inmaculada project, $76,100 for the compilation of historical exploration
work and a geologic database at the Gold Gulch project, $40,800 at the
Cottonwood Peak project in Nevada.


Working capital at the end of the first quarter decreased to $4.2 million from
$4.8 million at year end March 31, 2007 primarily as Ventura made its strategic
investments in Santa Barbara and African Aura totaling approximately $614,500.
Cash used in investing activities totaled $815,400 including the strategic
investments and $197,300 in mineral property and deferred exploration costs at
the Inmaculada, Gold Gulch and Cottonwood Peak projects.


At the Cottonwood Peak project in Nevada, the Company continues to evaluate the
recent drill results, geochemical and geophysical data. In the course of
independent verification and quality assurance testing of these results, the
verification testing returned assay results showing no gold mineralization for
two drill holes compared to previous results received from the original primary
laboratory. Upon being informed of the differences, the primary laboratory
re-analyzed and corrected its assay findings, and identified an errant
laboratory procedure. As a result, three intervals in two holes highlighted in
Ventura's March 20, 2007 news release, specifically 20 feet of 0.3 g/t gold in
hole CPC-2 and five feet of 6.6 g/t gold and five feet of 1.6 g/t gold in hole
CPC-3, actually showed no gold mineralization. The laboratory has reviewed its
quality control program and implemented protective measures within the
laboratory to prevent this incident from recurring.


Outlook

The Company expects to invest approximately $1.5 million in exploration
expenditures for this fiscal year ending March 31, 2008, mainly focusing on the
Inmaculada and Gold Gulch projects. This exploration expenditure may change
based on results from various ongoing exploration programs. It is anticipated
that the Company's existing cash reserves will be sufficient to finance current
planned exploration and investment activities for this fiscal year.


The Company's key objectives for the immediate future are to:

- Complete the Phase I drilling program on the Gold Gulch gold-copper project;

- Finalize a pre-drilling exploration program and commence drilling on the
Inmaculada silver-gold project;


- Complete the evaluation of the drill results from the Cottonwood Peak gold
project to determine if further work should be undertaken;


- Pursue new exploration project opportunities to expand the exploration
pipeline; and,


- Continue to develop strategic relationships with those companies and
management that have unique capabilities that are complementary to those of the
Company.


The Company is a United States-based precious metals exploration and development
company implementing a business plan to a) acquire, evaluate and develop
high-grade, low-cost gold-silver and base-metal deposits with a view to
establishing strategic alliances and/or joint ventures with larger companies,
and b) acquire strategic investments and/or alliances with pre-IPO exploration
companies and listed junior companies where Ventura believes those companies and
management have the resources and expertise to optimize the potential value of
their asset bases. In addition to exploration projects in Peru, Arizona and
Nevada, the Company has over $1 million in strategic investments in emerging
exploration companies with exposure to projects in Mexico, Ecuador, China and
Africa.
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