TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - July 17, 2012) - Carpathian Gold Inc. (TSX:CPN) ("the Corporation" or "Carpathian") is pleased to announce its updated National Instrument 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimate ("2012 Resource Estimate") as provided by independent consultants AGP Mining Consultants Inc. ("AGP"), on Carpathian's 100% owned Rovina Exploration License in west-central Romania. The 2012 Resource Estimate includes the Colnic, Rovina and Ciresata gold-rich copper porphyry deposits, collectively referred to as the Rovina Valley Project ("RVP"). All three deposits are in close proximity to one another and amenable to a central ore processing facility as described in the Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") completed in March 2010. Colnic and Rovina are amenable to open-pit mining and Ciresata to bulk underground mining. AGP has estimated the 2012 Resource Estimate for the RVP with a date cut off of April 23, 2012, updating the last resource estimate from November 2008 ("2008 Resource Estimate") to include results from an additional 95 drill holes for 57,541 metres and utilized a total of 120,256 metres of diamond drill hole data from 251 drill holes. The objective of the 2011 and 2012 drilling programs was primarily to convert the inferred resources from the 2008 Resource Estimate to the measured plus indicated category for use in the on-going pre-feasibility study as well as test for any resource extension. This objective was overwhelmingly accomplished as shown below in 2012 Resource Estimate.

Highlights include:

• 7.19 million ounces of gold plus 1,420 million pounds of copper in measured plus indicated resources, a 134% increase in gold and a 87% increase in copper from the 2008 Resource Estimate;
• Gold equivalent ("Au eq") resource in the measured plus indicated category of 10.8 million ounces, a 113% increase from the 2008 Resource Estimate;
• 12.2% increase in overall gold grade in the measured plus indicated category from 0.49 g/t Au to 0.55 g/t Au as compared to the 2008 Resource Estimate; with a 110% increase in tonnes; and,
• over 93% of the resources are in the measured plus indicated category with 41% of the measured plus indicated resources from the Ciresata underground bulk mining deposit and 59% from the combined Rovina and Colnic open-pit deposits.

The updated resource estimate is shown below.