LONGUEUIL, CANADA--(Marketwire - Dec. 13, 2012) - Reunion Gold Corporation (News - Market indicators) ("Reunion or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on its exploration activities at the Matthews Ridge manganese project in Guyana, South America.

The Company has concluded its planned exploration program for 2012, completing a total of 47,570 meters of Diamond drilling in 735 holes, 17,361 meters of reverse circulation drilling in 283 holes, 217 meters of Banka drilling in 119 holes and 365 sampling pits. Reunion has received complete assay results from all drill holes and all results received since the Company's October 31, 2012 press release are reported in this press release.

Highlights of the most significant new Diamond drill assay results are presented in Table 1. Refer to Appendix 1 for complete new results.

Table 1 ⁽¹⁾

Drilling results continue to indicate an excellent correlation with trench intersections, confirming that mineralization persists regularly throughout the saprolite zone and continues as proto-ore in the fresh rock. Maps showing the target hills and location of mineralized zones in relation to the drill holes are provided in Appendixes 2 and 3. Diamond and RC drilling has been done to the saprolite-fresh rock interface. The Company intends to define resources in the saprolitic, detrital and tailings materials, which are amenable to simple earth-moving extraction.

The metallurgical testing of the various ore materials is now complete. The test results will be reported when the final report becomes available.

An independent "Qualified Person" (as defined under Canadian National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101")) is currently doing the geological modeling of manganese mineralization for target Hills 1 to 9, with the objective of completing an initial resource estimate compliant with NI 43-101.

Banka drilling of tailings material

The previous mining of manganese ore at Matthews Ridge in the 1960's have produced a significant volume of tailings material, which did not meet commercial specifications at the time, but that was conveniently deposited next to the processing plant in a shallow valley. The Company completed the sampling of this material by doing 119 holes using a manual Banka drill with six-inch casing. This work confirmed that the tailings cover has an average thickness of 0.86 m and the average grade of 208 samples assayed 15.62% Mn.

Pitting of detrital material

The so-called detrital material consists of deposits formed by manganese nodules and fragments derived from the erosion of lateritic duricrust and saprolitic material, forming "blankets" overlying the target hills. Reunion sampled this material with 365 mechanized and manual pits and the results are compiled in the table below:

Exploration of eastern extension

Reunion has started the systematic trenching of its 5 km-long eastern extension discovery, as reported previously and referred to as "Arakaka". This program aims to define the extent and characteristics of manganese mineralization to the east of Hill 1, with the objectives of including mineralized material from this area in the global footprint resources.

Project description

The Matthews Ridge Project consists of four Prospecting Licenses covering an area of 185 km² located in northwest Guyana, in and around the former Matthews Ridge mine. The Company also holds two Permissions for Geological and Geophysical Surveys ("PGGS") for manganese over an area of 14,970 km² surrounding the four Prospecting Licences. Manganese ore was mined from 1960 to 1968 by Union Carbide and exported via railroad and a fluvial port. Mining was done on five of a series of nine hills extending for 15 km and striking northeastern-southwestern (see Appendix 2). 

Manganese mineralization is hosted by the Barama Group sedimentary sequence of Proterozoic age and consists of typical saprolitic and detrital deposits formed as a result of supergene enrichment of manganese-rich sediments under a tropical climate. The saprolitic deposits are formed by manganese oxide and hydroxide minerals occurring along the crest of hills and are related to the weathered lateritic profile, reaching 100 m below surface.

Quality assurance and quality control

Diamond drilling was done using HQ-diameter casing and triple-tube core barrel to maximize recovery. Half of the core was used for sampling at regular 1.5 m intervals. Reverse circulation drilling was done with four-inch casing, sampling at every meter and splitting the rock chips once in the field and processing an entire half sample. Banka drilling of tailings was done with six-inch casing and sampling at every meter. Sampling of detrital material is being done by 30 cm-wide vertical channels in pits. Standard reference materials, internal standards, blanks and duplicate samples have been used to control laboratory accuracy and precision. Core sample preparation was done by Activation Laboratories Ltd. and ACME Laboratories at their facilities in Georgetown, comprised of crushing to minus 2 mm and pulverization passing 200 mesh, followed by XRF assays for manganese and other relevant oxides at their laboratories in Canada. Sample preparation and XRF assay of reverse circulation drill, Banka drill and pit samples were done by FILAB Guyana Laboratories on site using the same methodology described above. Samples of saprolitic, detrital and tailings material are also being processed by a scrubbing / jigging pilot plant operated by FILAB under the supervision of GMining Services, as part of the metallurgical testing of mineralized materials.

Carlos H. Bertoni, P. Geo., a qualified person as defined under the terms of NI 43-101, has verified the data and approved the technical information contained in this press release.

About the Company

Reunion Gold Corporation is a mineral exploration company focused on the acquisition, exploration and development of mineral properties in the Guyana Shield of South America. The Company through its 100% indirectly owned subsidiary Reunion Manganese Inc., has assembled a large, strategic land position to conduct exploration and development activities for manganese in the North West District of Guyana. The Company also has the right to acquire a 100% interest in a gold exploration project located in the Lely Mountain area in Eastern Suriname.

Manganese is the fourth largest metal consumed in the world, behind iron, aluminum and copper. It is a key component in steel and iron production with no viable substitute.

Additional information about the Company is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and at www.reuniongold.com.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking information. Although the Company believes in light of the experience of its officers and directors, current conditions and expected future developments and other factors that have been considered appropriate that the expectations reflected in this forward-looking information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on them because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Forward looking information in this news release includes statements regarding the results of the exploration activities and interpretation of such results, the nature, potential size and continuity of the mineralization system, the timing and completion of future work programs, mineral resource estimate and geological modelling. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof and the Company undertakes no obligations to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws.

A table and maps are available at the following address: http://file.marketwire.com/release/ReunionGold_1213_2.pdf