VENTANA APPOINTS PAUL IRELAND AS CFO
Vancouver, B.C., December 10, 2009 – Ventana Gold Corp. (TSX: VEN) (“Ventana” or “the Company”) has appointed Paul Ireland to the position of Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately. Paul replaces Susan Rubin, who held the position since August 2008.
Mr. Ireland is a Chartered Accountant with extensive financial experience in the mining and forestry sectors. Most recently he was CFO and Corporate Secretary for Western Forest Products Inc., where he was responsible for finance, treasury, IT, procurement and public filings. He was also VP Finance at Diavik Diamond Mines Inc., a division of Rio Tinto, from 2002 to 2004 during the startup of the Diavik Diamond mine. Mr. Ireland has successfully negotiated significant debt refinancings and raised new equity capital. Mr. Ireland will be based in Vancouver and will also serve as CFO for Wildcat Silver Corporation.
Ventana President and CEO Steve Orr said: “This appointment strengthens and expands Ventana’s management team as we continue to advance our aggressive growth strategy at the La Bodega project in Colombia.”
About Ventana
Ventana is a Vancouver-based mineral exploration and development company with mineral rights to 4,573 hectares of exploration property in northeastern Colombia. Ventana is currently drilling at the La Bodega project with a focus on expanding the high-grade La Mascota zone. The Company’s shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol VEN.
For additional information please visit http://www.ventanagold.com/or contact:
Meghan Brown, Investor Relations Manager
tel (604) 638 2002
email mbrown@ventanagold.com
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.