Luna Gold Intersects 81.50 Meters @ 1.18 G/T Au Including 2.04 Meters @ 9.15 G/T Au and 5.10 Meters @ 3.15 G/T Au in Boa Esperanca Trenches, Aurizona

Luna Gold Corp. is pleased to announce positive trenching results from the Boa Esperança near mine exploration target, located 1 kilometer southeast of the Piaba deposit in the Aurizona Main project area. Plan maps showing the location of the Boa Esperança target and the individual trench results have been uploaded to the Luna Gold website at www.lunagold.com. Highlights include:

* 81.50 meters @ 1.18 g/t Au including 2.01 meters @ 7.61 g/t Au, 2.04 meters @ 9.15 g/t Au and 5.10 meters @ 3.15 in trench BE-TR-000
* 65.82 meters @ 1.15 g/t Au including 2.00 meters @ 3.07 g/t Au and 3.90 meters @ 3.30 g/t Au in trench BE-TR-100E

Luna’s President & CEO, John Blake, comments, “Luna Gold is pleased with the results at Boa Esperança which is now a drill ready target with high potential to increase the Aurizona resource. The results validate our exploration team’s methodology and strategy to build on the Company’s resource base. Boa Esperança is one of ten potential satellite deposits identified as high priority resource definition targets, located close to the Aurizona processing plant.”

An increased resource will allow Aurizona to increase production, while maintaining a long mine life. An updated Aurizona resource statement is expected to be released in Q4 2011 following completion of the Aurizona resource definition program. A sixth drill rig has been mobilized to the project and is in operation, and a seventh rig is expected on site shortly.

BACKGROUND

In August 2010 Luna Gold commenced an exploration program with three objectives: 1) Increase the resource at Aurizona 2) Discovery exploration programs in Luna’s extensive land holding in Maranhao state (Maranhao Greenfields)

3) Deliver an initial NI 43-101 resource estimate on the Cachoeira Gold Project.

The resource definition program at Aurizona includes an initial 20,000 meter diamond drill program of infill and deep drilling, which in addition to adding resources will increase the geological knowledge of the structurally controlled mineralization at Aurizona. In 2010, exploration teams identified 10 gold targets through surface geochemical surveys and geologic mapping. Boa Esperança is the first target to have both auger drilling and trenching programs completed, and with today’s promising results, Luna Gold is confident that the remaining 9 sites will demonstrate similar mineralization styles. The importance of these sites is the potential resources that they can add to Aurizona, as all are located within short trucking distances from the Aurizona processing plant.

The diamond drill program has completed approximately 6,000 meters, as of the end of January, with the results of 7 holes released with very good gold intersections (see December 14, 2010 press release). Luna Gold expects that more results will become available in the coming weeks. Drilling is currently focused on infilling over a 3 kilometre strike length at the Piaba deposit to further define measured and indicated resources. On completion of this program, the rigs will be moved to the Tatajuba deposit and Boa Esperançã target. Considering the results to date, Luna Gold expects to complete a resource update on Aurizona in Q4 2011.

Since August, Luna Gold has increased its highly strategic land holding to 170,000 ha, covering prospective greenstone terrain in Maranhão State, in the project called Maranhão Greenfields (formerly Aurizona Regional). Through this program of land staking, Luna Gold has gained control of an underexplored gold province with numerous similarities to West African geology. This major greenfields project is 100% owned by Luna Gold and is not subject to third party agreements. Luna Gold currently has a program underway with exploration terms active in four separate target areas, conducting soil surveying, geologic mapping and rock sampling.

On December 23, 2010, Luna Gold announced an initial NI 43-101 resource estimate for the Cachoeira deposit, which is now available on SEDAR and the company website. Cachoeira is now Luna Gold’s organic growth pipeline project with a scoping study commencing in March 2011, which will identify the next steps into delivering Cachoeira as a mine project. (See press releases December 23, 2011 and February 10, 2011)

BOA ESPERANCA

A trenching program totaling 1,007 meters in 7 individual trenches (1102 individual samples including QAQC) was completed at the Boa Esperança target. Trenches were opened on 100 and 200 meter spaced grids orientated at right angles to the Boa Esperança mineralized structure which has been defined by soil sampling, field mapping, auger drilling and ground magnetic surveying. Trenches ranged from 77 to 187 meters in length and were excavated using a high capacity hydraulic excavator to depths of up to 5 meters. Sampling was conducted on continual 1 meter intervals along trench walls followed by detailed logging by Company geologists.

Luna Gold’s VP Exploration, Titus Haggan, states, “These are excellent results from Boa Esperança which is hosted within a parallel shear zone south of the Piaba and Tatajuba gold deposits. Mineralization is associated with a zone of low magnetic response consistent with the Piaba structure. Previous operators drilled nine diamond and reverse circulation (RC) holes at Boa Esperança in the 1990′s totaling 773 meters. Best historic drill intercepts include 8.00 m @1.57 g/t Au including 2.00 m @ 3.48 g/t Au in RC hole BRAZP008 and 8.67 m @ 1.13 g/t Au including 1.00 m @ 4.90 g/t Au in diamond hole BRAZD160 (these results do not represent true thickness).

Luna Gold trenches were opened to define the width of the mineralized structure at surface. Six trenches intersected mineralization and collectively define two mineralized zones, called Boa Esperança East (BEE) and Boa Esperança West (BEW) that are coincident with mineralized Luna auger drill holes (see Luna press release dated September 2, 2010). Mineralization strike length at BEE is 400 meters. Mineralization at BEW is lower grade and has been defined for 250 meters strike length and is open to the west. The width of mineralization intersected in the trenches should not be considered to represent sub-cropping fresh rock mineralization widths, due to the dispersal effect of supergene surface enrichment processes. However, mineralization intersected is associated with an increase in quartz veining and hydrothermal alteration. Geologic modeling of Boa Esperança is being finalized ahead of a diamond drill program which will define new gold resources close to the Aurizona gold process plant.

Our exploration crews are currently completing trenches over the Ferradura and Conceição near mine exploration targets where new mapping has identified gold anomalies associated with Banded Iron Formations, a mineralization style previously undocumented in the district. Results of the Aurizona exploration programs, which are focused on delivering significant resource growth in 2011, will be released as they are received.