Guiana Shield Projects

It was two years ago, at the 2005 Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention, when an exciting turn of events put the Vancouver-based junior on the road to becoming one of the biggest landholders in Venezuela and Guyana. According to ValGold’s President, CEO and Director, Stephen Wilkinson, “We were approached by Newmont, because they needed an exploration group of sufficient quality to take on all their remaining assets in Guyana.”

The Company already had 220,432 acres of holdings in Bolivar State, Venezuela, which, Wilkinson noted, lie just across the border from where Newmont has more than a million acres of licenses in Guyana. “We’ve arrived at an agreement with Newmont for 100 percent of their properties, and if we make a major discovery, they can buy their way back into that property,” he said, adding, “I don’t mind being partners with a company like Newmont.”

Venezuela Projects

Armed with data obtained from Newmont’s previous exploration efforts in four properties covering approximately 1,213,500 acres in northwest Guyana, ValGold’s team of experts followed up in the field and uncovered several promising gold discoveries, as well as potential nickel, copper and uranium targets.

The Mochila Lineament contains numerous artisanal workings covering a surface area of more than 14 km by 3 km. Within this area, several world-class deposits could be developed. Three target areas have been identified in a selected area of the lineament and are ready for drill testing.

Prior to becoming President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of ValGold in 2002, Wilkinson served as President, CEO and Director of Northern Orion Explorations Ltd. He was responsible for the restructuring of Northern Orion saving it from bankruptcy. Now part of the mining index on the Toronto Stock Exchange, ValGold was one of Northern Orion’s largest shareholders.

“For the last five years I took that $2.5 million investment we used to buy Northern Orion, the predecessor of ValGold, and turned that into more than $10 million worth of gain to keep the company going,” said Wilkinson, who was an analyst for RBC Dominion Securities Inc. from 1996 to 1999 before coming back to the junior mining industry. “That gave me a good education in the workings of the equity market, which has been to the benefit of both Northern Orion and ValGold.”

Founded approximately 20 years ago as Valerie Gold Resources, the company’s origins were grassroots. “The company was what we traditionally call a “greenfield” exploration company; going out and looking for new ideas and mineral deposits in unexplored areas. They were modestly successful,” Wilkinson explained, adding, “But the problem with being a greenfield explorer is that it’s almost the luck of the draw whether or not you actually make discoveries.”

When he became president of the company, big changes ensued. Wilkinson said, “We brought on a new vice president and chairman of the board, and we also changed the direction of the company: looking to acquire assets that actually had seen previous exploration work that was incomplete but gave good indication of a high potential for developing into a good asset.”

ValGold’s first gold property, known as Tower Mountain, is located in the Matawin Gold Belt in northwestern Ontario. “We have drilled ten miles of core and developed a modest gold resource on the property where nobody had looked before,“ said Wilkinson, quoting 150,000 ounces of low-grade open pitable rock, with dozens of areas on the property still unexplored.

Garrison Gold Project

Exploration drilling on the Tower Mountain property took place from Fall of 2002 until the Winter of 2005 before the project was eclipsed by ValGold’s acquisition of the Garrison gold property. Located in Garrison Township, 40 kilometers north of Kirkland Lake and 100 kilometers east of Timmins, Ontario, the Garrison property had undergone surface and underground exploration by Cominco in the mid-30's and abandoned until 1985, when Jonpol Explorations funded a joint venture exploration program with Cominco. Jonpol continued working on that property for many years with various joint venture partners and had invested approximately $12 million in the property over the years. When ValGold bought the property in 2005, it was lying dormant.

Recalled Wilkinson, “Gold was at $255 an ounce, and nobody wanted a small gold mining operation like that one was shaping up to be. I’ve known the property for years, and when it became available to us, we bought it outright. We’ve now invested about $3 million in the property and completed maybe 30,000 meters of drilling, so it’s becoming a substantial property. That adds in to the 200 drill holes that were done before our picking it up. And we’re now looking at developing our reserve or resource and seeing whether it’s worth opening up the underground workings that are there.”

He added that Garrison is situated in an excellent neighborhood. “We’ve got great access, because it lies right on a highway, and next door is the whole (Newmont) Holt-McDermott mining complex, which has produced a little more than 2 million ounces to date and still has a million ounces left in the mine, so it’s a great address. We‘re modeling it, and we’re about to hire a consultant capable of doing the reserves calculation on it, so we’ll probably have that portion of the project complete by the end of summer.”

While ValGold was entrenched in its exploration work, Wilkinson was sitting on the board of directors of another company, called Bolivar Gold, which was bought out by Gold Fields Ltd. of South Africa for $450 million in 2006. “Bolivar’s main asset was the Choco 10 gold mine in Venezuela,” said Wilkinson. “It was being developed as a multi-million ounce deposit, and Bolivar actually built a mill and went into commercial production when Gold Fields stepped up to buy the whole company.

“While Gold Fields was doing their investigation, one of the large corporate groups in Venezuela (The Organización Cisneros) had a mining asset they wanted someone to take over. They approached Bolivar, which turned it down and recommended they present it to Valgold,” he recalled. “We were really impressed with this asset, which has been a working asset for about 15 years, roughly $69 million invested in the property, located in Venezuela. Bolivar stayed very close to the Choco 10 operation of Bolivar Gold and had a great working relationship with the government. So, we investigated and wanted to buy this asset for $8 million.”

ValGold has until October to complete its due diligence, but the company is currently drilling the El Callao district, which is where the Choco 10 mine was. Wilkinson compared the geology of the area to Nevada, noting that gold deposits in the El Callao area have been producing for over 100 years with approximately 8 million ounces total gold production reported for the district. The El Callao greenstone belt is one of a number of early Proterozoic greenstone belts of the Guiana Shield of eastern Venezuela.

Fully permitted, Wilkinson noted that the Venezuelan government has been particularly helpful. “We have about 2 dozen good drillable targets on our first three properties. We believe we’ll be working on this for years and that it will help us develop into a pretty significant company.”

Wilkinson credited his team with ValGold’s success in attracting the eye of majors like Newmont. “Companies certainly like the success that we’ve had doing exploration work on their properties. We’re looking to acquire assets that have the potential for major deposits but don’t need a huge amount of money to gain them, and there’s a large amount of luck in that strategy.”

Chairman & Director Andrew Milligan has been in the mining industry for more than half a century and was involved in the creation of Glamis Gold Ltd. “He is a wealth of wisdom for me to tap into when it comes to negotiating deals, contracts, and writing up reports,” said Wilkinson, acknowledging Milligan’s role as a mentor. “He’s well respected and well known all over the world.”

Tom Pollock serves as Vice President Exploration of Valgold and has more than 25 years of exploration and management experience in several countries, including, Canada, Mali, Ghana, Saudi Arabia and China. “He came to us from BHP Minerals Ltd.,” said Wilkinson. “With his global experience, he’s great for being able to go to the fields and rank a property where it belongs. He’s also adept at identifying good quality in a property other people might not see.”

Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary Shannon Ross is a registered Chartered Accountant. Ross previously worked as an internal auditor for Cominco Ltd., and has served as CFO for several mining companies before joining ValGold.

“The rest of the board is ideal for any little company that wants to grow into something bigger,” said Wilkinson, noting that the board is comprised of seven directors. Each one covers an area in the industry: metallurgy, finance, tax, geology, engineering ? it’s a well balanced force.” He also applauded the new addition of Jeff Stuart. “Jeff is managing our investor communications and doing a great job. In fact, we’re starting to get great analyst coverage due to his efforts.”

With its significant holdings in Venezuela and Guyana, Wilkinson pointed out that it’s time for ValGold to take the next major step and move up in the world. “We’re going out into the market place and letting everyone know what we’re doing.” In the near future, ValGold will be presenting to institutions in Zurich, Frankfurt and London.

“We’re developing a great little gold deposit in the second largest gold camp in the world. So, we’re doing pretty well for a quiet little entity.”

ValGold Resources Ltd. is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the trading symbol: VAL. For further information on the Company and its portfolio of international projects, visit their website at www.valgold.com.

Stephen J. Wilkinson
President & Chief Executive Officer

For further information please contact:
Jeff Stuart, Investor & Corporate Communications
Tel: (604) 687-4622 Fax: (604) 687-4212
Email: jstuart@valgold.com or info@valgold.com