Southern Arc Minerals (TSX VENTURE:SA)(OTCQX:SOACF) ("Southern Arc"
or "the Company") is pleased to announce that the Company has
received the Pinjam Pakai forestry permit for its West Lombok
property, allowing the Company to resume full-scale exploration
activities on the property.
Southern Arc will host an investor webcast
Tuesday, November 20 at 1:30pm PST (4:30pm EST)
Toll-free 1-800-319-4610 or webcast at http://www.southernarcminerals.com/
"I am pleased to announce that we are in a position to fully
re-engage exploration activities on our flagship West Lombok
property," said John Proust, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
of Southern Arc. "This permit enables Southern Arc to conduct both
surface and drilling exploration for the standard renewable
two-year period. We are committed to advancing this property and
will immediately mobilize rigs, staff and resources.
"As challenging as I know the wait for the permit has been for
our shareholders," continued Mr. Proust, "I would stress that this
conservative approach has placed us in a much stronger position to
both protect and promote the Company's interest in West
Lombok."
Southern Arc has continued to work closely with SRK Consulting
(Canada) Inc. ("SRK"), an internationally renowned, independent
consulting service to major, intermediate and junior mining and
exploration companies. SRK has worked with the Company to prepare a
detailed drill program for epithermal gold targets within the
Pelangan and Mencanggah prospects. The next phase of exploration
will focus on infill drilling in areas where the Company has
identified high-grade shoots and wide mineralized intercepts
(Figure 1). The Company's objective for this drilling program is to
develop a National Instrument 43-101 compliant resource estimate
for three targets within the 13 km by 7 km corridor of
mineralization in the West Lombok property. These targets - Bising,
Tebu Serai and Raja - comprise the three most developed epithermal
targets within the property. Several other epithermal targets have
returned encouraging surface results and the Company expects to
explore these more thoroughly with future drill programs.
"With issuance of the West Lombok Pinjam Pakai forestry permit
we can resume exploration and pursue evaluation of the gold
potential of this property," said Dr. Mike Andrews, President and
Chief Operating Officer of Southern Arc. "We appreciate the
patience of shareholders and are committed to advancing the project
to a resource status for the benefit of both Southern Arc
shareholders and our community partners. From the commencement of
drilling, we anticipate that this program will take approximately
five months to complete, allowing Southern Arc to publish an NI
43-101 compliant resource estimate for the property by
mid-2013."
Bising
The Bising target in the Mencanggah prospect is the Company's
first priority for drilling. The Company is mobilizing six drill
rigs to the Bising target and field personnel are already preparing
access roads and drill pads so that the Company can resume drilling
within one month. Southern Arc plans to drill up to 18 holes at
Bising in two phases (Phase A and Phase B, Figure 2) to infill and
expand the zone of mineralization adjacent to the wide intercepts
identified with MCG028 (51.3 m @ 1.5 g/t gold), MCG030 (39.0 m @
1.8 g/t gold) and MCG032 (37.8 m @ 1.0 g/t gold). This two-phase
program will enable the Company to review assay results from Phase
A exploration and refocus Phase B exploration as appropriate.
Surface channel sampling along the extensive strike length at
Bising has returned high-grade intervals as well as very wide
intervals of lower-grade gold mineralization. The Company completed
eight holes at Bising in 2011 for a total of 2,285.7 metres. Drill
holes were located at 100 metre drill spacing to test the main
Bising epithermal structural body, its extensions, and
intersections with several crossing structures, identifying a
500-metre-long zone of mineralization. The extensive width of the
main Bising epithermal body is inferred to result from the
intersection of geological structures: a major west-northwest
trending structure and several north-northwest trending structures,
the latter of which form the dominant gold mineralized trend in the
district.
Tibu Serai
At the Tibu Serai target in the Mencanggah prospect, Southern
Arc plans to test down-dip from elevated rock-chip gold
geochemistry in multiple veins that exhibit low silver-to-gold
ratios (Figure 3). Low silver-to-gold ratios are a proven vector to
higher gold grades in epithermal mineralization throughout the
property. Seven Phase A drill holes are planned, with eight Phase B
follow-up holes to test the strike extensions if results are
encouraging.
Raja
At Raja in the Pelangan prospect, the drill program will test
for continuity of high-grade mineralization around the previous
drill intercepts of PLD007 (17.4 m @ 19.4 g/t gold and 28.3 g/t
silver) and PLD008 (11.55 m @ 9.8 g/t gold and 31.1 g/t silver)
while examining the potential for extending and upgrading
high-grade shoots identified with previous drilling (Figure 4).
Southern Arc has planned eight Phase A holes, with five Phase B
follow-up holes dependent on results.
Mohammed Al-Shahwani is Chief Executive Officer of Qatar Mining
Company, which is wholly owned by the State of Qatar. Qatar Mining
Company is the sole shareholder of Tadeen Cyprus Holdings which, in
turn, holds a 9.8% interest in Southern Arc. Mr. Al-Shahwani joined
Southern Arc's Board of Directors in September 2011. Asked for his
reaction to news of the West Lombok forestry permit, Mr.
Al-Shahwani replied, "I supported the decision to take a patient
and prudent approach over the past ten months and congratulate the
executive team for this successful outcome, an achievement due in
part to Southern Arc's commitment to building strong relationships
at all levels in a culturally nuanced environment. I look forward
to the outcome of the West Lombok NI 43-101 compliant resource
estimate with great interest and trust that the work programs
planned for the area will add value to the exploration assets."
To view the figures accompanying this press release, click on
the following link:
http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/sa1119m.pdf
On behalf of the Board of Southern Arc Minerals Inc.
John Proust, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
About Southern Arc
Southern Arc Minerals Inc. is a Canadian mineral exploration
company focused on gold and copper-gold exploration. The Company's
portfolio includes four exploration projects with epithermal gold
and copper-gold porphyry prospects on the Lombok and Sumbawa
islands in Indonesia, one of which is being advanced in partnership
with Vale S.A. The Company's key exploration property is its West
Lombok project, with several gold-rich copper porphyry and
epithermal gold vein prospects. Southern Arc is listed on the TSX
Venture Exchange under the symbol SA and on the OTCQX International
under the symbol SOACF. More information is available at
www.southernarcminerals.com or by emailing
info@southernarcminerals.com.
Forward-looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements relating
to expected or anticipated future events and operations, timing of
projects and anticipated results that are forward-looking in nature
and, as a result, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties,
such as general economic, market and business conditions, the
regulatory process and actions, technical issues, new legislation,
competitive and general economic factors and conditions, the
uncertainties resulting from potential delays or changes in plans,
the occurrence of unexpected events, and the company's capability
to execute and implement future plans. Actual results achieved may
vary from the information provided herein as a result of numerous
known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors. There
is no representation by the company that actual results achieved
during the forecast period will be the same in whole or in part as
that forecast.
Qualified Person
The technical information in this document has been reviewed by
Southern Arc's Executive Vice President, Andrew Rowe, B. App. Sc.
Geology, MAusIMM. Mr. Rowe has over 18 years of international
mineral exploration experience throughout Southeast and Central
Asia and Australia. During this time he has held such positions as
Principal Geologist - Feasibility Studies, Senior Geologist and
Consulting Geologist. The technical information in this document
has also been reviewed by Southern Arc's President & Chief
Operating Officer, Dr. Mike Andrews, PhD, FAusIMM, who has
sufficient experience relevant to the style of mineralization under
consideration and qualifies as a Qualified Person as defined by
National Instrument 43-101.
The drill program and sampling protocol is managed by Southern
Arc under the supervision of Andrew Rowe. The diamond drill holes
are drilled at PQ, HQ and NQ sizes depending on hole depth and core
recovery to date has averaged 97.5%. Half core is cut by rock saw
and is generally sampled according to geological contacts ranging
between 0.2 to 2.5 metres in length. Three quality control samples
(one blank and two standards) are inserted into each batch of 40
samples. The half core samples are securely transported from the
project site to the Intertek Testing Services ("ITS") sample
preparation laboratory in Sumbawa Besar via private truck hired by
Southern Arc. Sample pulps are then sent to the ITS Jakarta
laboratory by ITS. Gold is analyzed by fire assay with AAS finish
and a four-acid digestion with ICP-MS finish is used to analyze a
full suite of elements including silver and base metals. ITS is one
of the world's largest product and commodity testing, inspection
and certification organizations. The Jakarta laboratory is ISO
17025 accredited and employs a Laboratory Information Management
System for sample tracking, quality control and reporting.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services
Provider (as such term is defined in the policies of the TSX
Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or
accuracy of this release.
Contacts: Southern Arc Minerals Inc. Rhylin Bailie Vice
President, Communications & Investor Relations
604-676-5241info@southernarcminerals.com
www.southernarcminerals.com