Duran Ventures Inc. (TSX VENTURE:DRV)(BVL:DRV) is pleased to announce that it has signed the definitive agreement with Rio Alto Mining Limited whereby Duran has granted to Rio Alto options pursuant to which it may earn up to a 70% interest in the Company's Minasnioc Gold-Silver Property and a 65% interest in the Company's Ichuna Copper-Silver Property.

"I'm very excited to have Rio Alto, an established mining company in Peru, as a partner in the Minasnioc and Ichuna projects" stated Mr. Jeffrey Reeder, CEO and President of Duran. "This reinforces Duran's strategy of introducing strong partners to explore and develop our inventory of properties and provide an underlying stream of option payments".

The Minasnioc property covers 3800 hectares and is located in the Department Huancavelica, approximately 300 kilometres southeast of Lima, Peru. The Minasnioc property has seen previous intensive exploration campaigns by Barrick Gold Corporation and Compania de Minas Buenaventura S.A.C between 2001 and 2004, which included surface channel sampling and drilling. Duran recently acquired the historical geological and drill data from Barrick.

Under the terms of the Agreement, Rio Alto has the option to acquire a 51% interest in Minasnioc within a three year period by performing all necessary exploration work in order to define a sufficient mineral resource to justify an economic assessment, and making a payment to Duran of $500,000. Rio Alto may earn an additional 19% interest in Minasnioc within the subsequent two year period by completing permitting and preparation of a study required for a production decision, which will trigger a payment to Duran of $500,000.