TMX group

Incentive Stock Options Granted

TORONTO, Oct. 17 /CNW/ - Avalon Ventures Ltd., (TSX-V: AVL) (the
"Company") is pleased to announce that a Phase 1 diamond drilling program has
commenced on the U6 Savant gold project located near Savant Lake, Ontario. The
program will involve a minimum of 600 metres of drilling in 4 holes to test
gold-bearing structures identified in 2005 from compilation work and a
geological mapping program.
The top priority target is a broad shear zone intersected in historical
drilling which produced assays of up to 0.65 g/t gold over 36.0 metres with
some narrow higher grade intervals assaying up to 10.2 g/t gold over
0.5 metres. The zone remains open to depth and along strike for delineating
zones of economic grade gold mineralization, and has yet to be tested across
its full width which has been estimated to be in the order of 100 metres. The
drill program will also test another parallel gold-bearing shear zone where
grab samples have returned assays of 26.7 g/t Au and 6.2 g/t Au respectively.
Channel samples collected in 2005 from this zone produced assays of 1.25 g/t
Au over 1 metre and 2.72 g/t Au over 0.9 metres and 3.15 g/t Au over 1 metre.
The drilling program is being supervised by Mr. Michel Dumoulin, P.Geo.
of Eveleigh Geological, Thunder Bay, Ontario. The drilling should be completed
in 7-10 days. Assays will be announced when they become available.
The U6 Savant property is held under option from Teck Cominco Limited,
with the Company having the right to earn a 100% interest, subject to a 2% NSR
royalty, by spending $500,000 on exploration work over four years. Under the
option agreement, Teck Cominco retains certain back-in rights to re-acquire a
65% interest in the property first by funding 2.5 times Avalon's expenditures
to earn an initial 51% interest, then by completing a feasibility study on the
property at its sole cost to earn an additional 14% interest. Ultimately, upon
delivery of a positive feasibility study, Teck Cominco can increase its
interest to 70% by arranging the project financing required to bring a mine
into production.

Incentive Stock Options

The Company also announces that it has granted an aggregate of 400,000
incentive stock options exerciseable at a price of $0.80 per share, of which
300,000 are granted to a senior officer to replace options which had recently
been exercised just prior to their expiry, and 100,000 are granted to a new
investor relations consultant. The consultant's options will vest at the rate
of 25% every three months following the date of grant of the options and any
shares issuable on exercise of the options will be subject to a four month
hold period beginning on the date of grant of the options.

About Avalon Ventures Ltd.

Avalon Ventures Ltd. (TSX-V: AVL) is a Canadian junior mineral
exploration and development company, with a primary focus on industrial
minerals and rare metals with high technology applications. Avalon currently
holds a valuable portfolio of advanced stage projects, including three
projects at the feasibility stage, that have received considerable interest
from around the world. To find out more about Avalon Ventures Ltd.
(TSX-V: AVL), please visit our website at www.avalonventures.com. Shares
Outstanding as at the date of this release: 48,527,598. Working Capital: $2.0
million
This news release is available on the Company's official on-line investor
relations site for investor commentary, feedback and questions. Investors are
invited to visit the "Avalon Ventures" IR Hub at
http://www.agoracom.com/ir/avalon. In addition, investors are invited to
e-mail their questions and correspondence to AVL(at)agoracom.com or phone Don
Bubar, P.Geo. President, at 416-364-4938. Mr. Bubar is the Qualified Person
responsible for the technical content of this news release.

The language used in this News Release may contain forward-looking
statements that may involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual events
or results could differ materially from the Company's forward-looking
statements and expectations. The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and
does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news
release.

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