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VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - June 2, 2010) - Cortez Gold Corp. ("Cortez") (TSX VENTURE:CUT) announced today that it has closed a non-brokered private placement of $1,050,000 (the "Offering"). The Offering consisted of 3,500,000 units (the "Units") at a price of $0.30 per Unit. Each Unit consists of one common share of the Company and one-half of one share purchase warrant (a "Warrant") with each whole Warrant entitling the holder to acquire an additional common share of the Company for a period of two years at a price of $0.45 per share.

The net proceeds of the private placement will be added to working capital and to finance the due diligence requirements of the Letter of Intent with Cortez Minera Mexicana, S.A. de C.V. ("Minera Mexicana"), as announced by the Company in its press release dated April 12, 2010. Minera Mexicana holds the option to acquire a 100% interest in the Petlacala gold-silver project in Guerrero State, Mexico, 50 km south of the city of Arcelia.

An aggregate of $60,690 in cash was paid to various finders for that portion of the financing attributable to these finders' efforts. In addition, a total of 160,800 in agents' warrants were issued to Jordan Capital Markets Inc., Macquarie Private Wealth Inc., and Canaccord Genuity Corp., with each warrant exercisable at $0.31 for a period of 12 months from the date of Closing. All securities issued are subject to a hold period of four months in accordance with the rules and policies of the Exchange and applicable Canadian securities laws.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD of Cortez Gold Corp.

Robert Eadie, President & CEO

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.