Aurora Gold Corporation Is Pleased to Announce That Drilling Will Commence on the Joint Venture São João Property Located in the Tapajos Gold Province, Pará, Brazil

Aurora Gold Corporation Is Pleased to Announce That Drilling Will Commence on the Joint Venture São João Property Located in the Tapajos Gold Province, Pará, Brazil

BALCATTA, AUSTRALIA–(EMWNews – July 17, 2008) – Aurora Gold Corporation (the “Company,”

“Aurora Gold”) (OTCBB: ARXG) (FRANKFURT: A4G) (XETRA: A4G) (BERLIN: A4G), a

mineral exploration company focusing on exploration and development of its

properties in the Tapajos Gold Province, State of Pará, Brazil, is pleased

to announce that the subsurface exploration of the São João project will

begin in late July.

Aurora Gold and their Joint venture partner, Samba Minerals Limited

(“Samba”) will begin drill testing the São João property in Northern Brazil

in late July 2008. Aurora Gold and Samba have entered into a joint venture

on the São João property and adjoining Comandante Araras property. Samba

has the right to earn up to 80% of the project by funding the project to

feasibility.

Drilling of the São João property will follow up on previous work completed

by Aurora Gold, which identified a series of at least 6 mineralised quartz

veins. The quartz veins have been traced on surface for combined lengths

of several hundreds of meters. The principal vein was initially sampled

and resulted in 80m @ 31 g/t gold and will be included in the planned drill

program.

Access to the site has been cleared and the exploration camp facilities are

currently being updated to manage the next phase of exploration.

Aurora Gold is a mineral exploration company focusing on the exploration

and development of its 4 exploration properties and 6 applications in the

Tapajos Gold Province, State of Pará, Brazil. The project areas were

selected due to their proximity to known gold occurrences and from

historical records of gold production. Of course as you should note,

proximity to an area having historical records of gold production provides

no assurance that we will discover any commercial resources on our

property. The lithologies associated with the projects are similar to those

that have proven to be the host of significant gold occurrences elsewhere

in the Tapajos. Aurora Gold’s stock trades under the symbol “ARXG” on the

OTC Bulletin Board in the United States, under the symbols “A4G.FSE” and

“A4G.ETR” on the Frankfurt Exchange and “A4G.BER” on the Berlin-Bremen

Stock Exchanges in Germany.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD



"Lars Pearl"

Lars Pearl

President, CEO and Director

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