January 7, 2010 , VANCOUVER, B.C. – ASHBURTON VENTURES INC. (ABR-TSX:V) (“Ashburton” or the "Company”) is pleased to announce the results from the second phase of this past summer’s soil sampling program on their 100% owned River Au prospect in the Yukon Territory adjoining ground held by Underworld Resources in the White Gold District.

The first phase of the Ashburton work was completed by a crew from Aurora Geosciences out of Whitehorse in July and August of 2009.  Reconnaissance soil lines were surveyed across the company’s block of 21 Au claims adjacent to ground held by Underworld and ten kilometers north-northeast of Underworld’s Golden Saddle discovery.  Samples were collected every 50 meters on lines spaced 300 meters apart.  Multiple gold soil anomalies, apparently paralleling the mapped geology, were detected on three adjacent soil lines with analyses ranging up to 90 ppb Au.

A second phase of soil sampling at the River Au prospect by the Aurora crew tripled the sampling density to 50-meter centers on lines spaced 100 meters apart in the areas of the earlier anomalies.  The in-fill sampling detected several new anomalies ranging up to 95 and 150 ppb Au and expanded the anomalous area to the north and south.  A trend of gold anomalies ranging from 25 to 150 ppb Au has now been detected on most of ten parallel lines across some 1100 meters of northerly slope.  Individual lines have gold anomalies across as much as 150 meters of sampling, suggesting that multiple structures may be responsible for the soil anomalies.

Following a detailed review of the latest results over the winter, a trenching program is anticipated for the 2010 summer followed by a drilling program in the later summer. 

Work on the Ashburton Au claims in the White Gold District is being directed by David Hedderly-Smith, Ph.D., P.G.  Dr. Hedderly-Smith has done work in similarly aged rocks in east central Alaska, 100 kilometers to the northwest, off and on since the 1970s.  He is an advisor to Ashburton, a Qualified Person as defined by N.I. 43-101, and has approved the information in this press release. 

Ashburton Ventures is a junior exploration company actively seeking mineral and energy opportunities for the benefit of all its stakeholders.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD                                                     

___________________________

Michael England, President

For further information contact:

Telephone: (604) 683-3995

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