American Bonanza Sells Iskut JV Property

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - June 8, 2011) -American Bonanza Gold Corp. (TSX:BZA)(OTCQX:ABGFF) ("Bonanza") and its joint venture partner Golden Band Resources Inc. ("Golden Band") (GBN: TSXV), announce the sale of their Iskut JV Property to Skyline Gold Corporation ("Skyline").

Subsequent to the Bonanza's acquisition with Golden Band Resources of the British Columbia-located Iskut JV Property (see news release of April 11, 2011), and upon the completion of Bonanza's review of the property and its options to advance it, Bonanza has decided that the best course of action is to accept Skyline's offer. Bonanza's current focus remains on completing construction at the Copperstone Gold Mine; please visit www.americanbonanza.com for further information.

The terms of the Skyline agreement with American Bonanza (47.5%) and Golden Band (52.5%) are for 5,000,000 shares of Skyline. Additional consideration is a half warrant exercisable as 2,500,000 full warrants at a price of
.50 per Skyline share for a period of five years.

All terms of this agreement are subject to approval by the TSX Venture Exchange.

About Bonanza

Bonanza is re-activating mining at the 100% owned, construction-stage Copperstone gold mine in Arizona. Bonanza has approximately 180 million shares outstanding and is permitted and fully funded through to production, with no debt and no hedges. For more information please visit Bonanza's website at www.americanbonanza.com.