Ms. Tara Christie reports

BANYAN GOLD CORP CLOSING FIRST TRANCHE OF NON-BROKERED PRIVATE PLACEMENT

Subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval, Banyan Gold Corp. has completed a first tranche non-brokered private placement for $539,222 in gross proceeds by issuing a total of 6,043,059 shares.

The first tranche private placement consists of 3,439,726 flow-through units (within the meaning of the Income Tax Act (Canada)), priced at 10 cents per share and 2,603,333 non-flow-through units priced at 7.5 cents per unit. Both the flow-through and non-flow-through units consist of one share and one-half of a non-flow-through share purchase warrant, each full warrant being exercisable for a period of 24 months from closing into one common share at a price of 15 cents per share subject to an acceleration clause.

The warrants, which form part of the units, may have their expiry time accelerated at any time prior to the expiry of the warrants if the volume-weighted average trading price of the corporation's shares on the TSX Venture Exchange is greater than 30 cents for 20 consecutive trading days, at which time the corporation may give notice in writing to the warrantholders within 10 days of such an occurrence that the warrants shall expire on the 30th day following the giving of such notice.

Insiders participated in the financing for $100,000 or 18.5 per cent in the first tranche.

Net proceeds will be used on the company's continuing summer exploration program at the Aurex-McQuesten and Hyland gold projects and for general working capital.

The shares issued will be subject to the customary four-month hold period.

The first tranche closing is part of a larger continuing financing.

Technical information

The technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Paul D. Gray, PGeo, a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About Banyan Gold Corp.

Banyan is a growth-stage gold exploration company whose flagship property, the Hyland gold project, is approximately 70 kilometres northeast of Watson Lake, Yukon, along the southeast end of the Tintina gold belt.

The Hyland main zone indicated gold resource estimate, prepared in accordance with NI 43-101, at a 0.3-gram-per-tonne-gold-equivalent cut-off, contains 8.6 million tonnes grading 0.85 g/t gold equivalent for 236,000 AuEq ounces with an inferred mineral resource of 10.8 million tonnes grading 0.83 g/t AuEq for 288,000 AuEq ounces.

Cut-off grade       In situ            Au                  Ag                AuEq              
(g/t AuEq)           tonnes     Grade     Ounces    Grade      Ounces   Grade     Ounces   
                                 (g/t)               (g/t)               (g/t)
Indicated            
0.3               8,637,000      0.78    216,000     7.04   1,954,000    0.85    236,000
Inferred             
0.3              10,784,000      0.77    266,000     5.32   1,845,000    0.83    288,000

Notes:
(1) Mineral resources, which are not mineral reserves, do not have demonstrated 
economic viability. All figures are rounded to reflect the relative 
accuracy of the estimate. 
(2) Mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.3 gram per tonne 
gold equivalent. Gold equivalent grade is based on $1,350 per ounce gold and  
$17 per ounce silver and assumes a 100-per-cent recovery. The gold equivalent 
calculation does not apply any adjustment factors for difference in 
metallurgical recoveries of gold and silver. This information can only be 
derived from definitive metallurgical testing, which has yet to be completed.

We seek Safe Harbor.