TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Jan. 25, 2013) - Duran Ventures Inc. (TSX VENTURE:DRV)(BVL:DRV) ("Duran" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has signed the definitive agreement (the "Agreement") with Rio Alto Mining Limited ("Rio Alto") 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 ("Minasnioc") and a 65% interest in the Company's Ichuña Copper-Silver Property ("Ichuña").

"I'm very excited to have Rio Alto, an established mining company in Perú, as a partner in the Minasnioc and Ichuña 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, Perú. The Minasnioc property has seen previous intensive exploration campaigns by Barrick Gold Corporation ("Barrick") and Compañia de Minas Buenaventura S.A.C ("Buenaventura") 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 (3) 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 (2) 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.

The Ichuña property is located 120 kilometres northeast of Arequipa in the Department of Moquegua in Southern Perú and adjacent to the gold-silver Chucapaca Project of Gold Fields Limited and Buenaventura. The Chucapaca Project hosts the Canahuire Zone which is located less than 3 kilometres from the southern boundary of the Ichuña Property. The resource on the Canahuire Zone was reported to contain 132.7 million tonnes at 1.4 g/t Au, 10.4 g/t Ag and 0.09% Cu for a total of 7.6 million ounces gold equivalent (source http://goldfields.co.za).

Under the terms of the Agreement, Rio Alto has the option to earn a 65% interest in Ichuña by incurring a total of US$8,000,000 in exploration costs within a four (4) year period, which shall include a drill program of 8,000 metres, of which a minimum of 4,000 metres must be drilled in the first year. In addition, Rio Alto must make a payment to Duran of $500,000 within the four (4) year period in order to complete their earn-in rights.

In order to maintain their Minasnioc and Ichuña property option earn-in rights Rio Alto must also exercise 100% of the warrants included in the private placement financing ("Private Placement") previously announced on October 1, 2012 (see Duran press release on the Company's website at http://duranventuresinc.com/news/PressRelease_RAM_private_placement_September_2012_final.pdf). The Private Placement consisted of five million (5,000,000) units (the "Units") of Duran at a price of Cdn$0.15 per Unit for an aggregate subscription price of Cdn$750,000, with each such Unit comprised of one common share of Duran (the "Common Shares") and two half warrants; the "Series A Warrants" and the "Series B Warrants". Each whole Series A Warrant shall be exercisable to acquire one Common Share at an exercise price of Cdn$0.25 per share until the date that is the earlier of (i) March 28, 2014, and (ii) the date that is thirty (30) days following the date notice is given to Rio Alto that the Common Shares have closed at or above the price of Cdn$0.25 per share for a period of 20 consecutive trading days on the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXVE") so long as such period occurs after September 28, 2013. Each whole Series B Warrant shall be exercisable to acquire one Common Share at an exercise price of Cdn$0.35 per share until the date that is the earlier of (i) March 28, 2015, and (ii) the date that is thirty (30) days following the date notice is given to Rio Alto that the Common Shares have closed at or above the price of Cdn$0.35 per share for a period of 20 consecutive trading days on the TSXVE so long as such period occurs after September 28, 2014. In the event that Rio Alto is precluded from exercising the warrants due to trading restrictions imposed pursuant to applicable securities laws or by Duran under any applicable policy respecting restrictions on trading in its securities, the expiry dates of the Series A Warrants and Series B Warrants may be extended for a period of ten (10) business days from the end of any such restricted period (subject to regulatory approvals).

Upon Rio Alto earning the interests in the Minasnioc and Ichuña properties, the parties will form a joint venture in accordance with their respective interests to further develop the properties.