TORONTO, March 8, 2012 /CNW/ - Gran Colombia Gold Corp. (TSX: GCM) is pleased to announce the appointment of Roy MacDonald as the Company's Vice President, Investor Relations, effective March 1, 2012. This executive position will report to the Chief Executive Officer.

Maria Consuelo Araujo, Chief Executive Officer of the Company, stated, "This is a new executive position and represents an important step in Gran Colombia Gold's evolution.  We are pleased to secure someone with Roy's breadth of experience as our investor relations executive.  Roy's mandate will include aligning external messaging with the operational and technical strengths of the Company and ensuring a complete understanding of the Company's assets, operations and business attributes within the financial markets."

Roy MacDonald is a highly experienced and respected executive with a diverse business background.   Prior to joining Gran Colombia, Mr. MacDonald held a number of senior positions in investor relations, mergers & acquisitions and as CFO of Multiservice Switching at Nortel.  In addition to his investor relations experience at Nortel, Mr. MacDonald most recently served as an investor relations consultant in the oil and gas industry.  Mr. MacDonald holds a Master's Degree in Business Administration.

Roy MacDonald commented, "I look forward to joining Gran Colombia.  The Company has a very experienced leadership team with a track record of success and delivering shareholder value.  Working with a strong team and portfolio of high quality projects, I look forward to making a positive contribution to the Company's growth and success in the coming years."

About Gran Colombia Gold Corp.

Gran Colombia is a Canadian-based gold and silver exploration, development and production company with its primary focus in Colombia. Gran Colombia is currently the largest underground gold and silver producer in Colombia with several underground mines in operation. In addition, Gran Colombia is advancing a project to develop a large-scale, gold and silver mine at its Marmato operations, and has an advanced stage property in Venezuela.

Additional information on Gran Colombia can be found on its website at www.grancolombiagold.com and by reviewing its profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information:

This news release contains "forward-looking information", which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the future financial or operating performance of the Company and its projects. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Gran Colombia to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this press release and Gran Colombia disclaim, other than as required by law, any obligation to update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, results, future events, circumstances, or if management's estimates or opinions should change, or otherwise. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.