Southern Empire Updates Permitting Status for Centauro Gold and Oro Cruz Projects

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 5, 2023 / Southern Empire Resources Corp. ("Southern Empire"; TSX-V:SMP) announces that it has received permitting from the Secretaría del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales ("SEMARNAT"; México's Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources) for 30 exploration drill hole sites at its Centauro Gold Project located in the State of Chihuahua, México.

The Centauro Gold Project, which has undergone numerous, but low-density, historical exploration work programs along a 2.5 by 1.5 kilometre (km) corridor, including 27 widely-spaced (200 meter (m) to >700m spacing) NQ diameter core drill holes totaling 5,824.5m. Previous operators (Silver Spruce Resources Inc., 2007 to 2009 and Mundoro Capital Inc., 2012 and 2013) also undertook various geological mapping, geochemistry and geophysics campaigns. The new permitting provides for 30 new exploration drill sites as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. The Centauro Gold Project has been permitted for 30 new exploration drill sites (red), infilling the significant gaps in the historical drilling. Site locations shown are approximate.

The Centauro Gold Project exhibits significant potential to host "Carlin-style" and/or epithermal precious metal mineralization based on extensive brecciation, silicification and argillization of the Tertiary-age Ahuichila Formation conglomerate, a strongly coincident gold ("Au"), arsenic ("As"), antimony ("Sb"), mercury ("Hg"), thallium, silver, barium soil geochemical signature associated with a silicified mesa "cap" covering 2.5 km along the strike of the main zone, outcrops containing arsenopyrite, realgar, orpiment and stibnite, and low to non-anomalous base metal values.

The environmental permitting work was completed by the geo-environmental consulting firm Segeo Ambientales Mx. of Hermosillo.

Oro Cruz Project - Permitting Update

On September 1, 2023, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued a Decision Record and a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) regarding the Environmental Assessment/Mitigated Negative Declaration (EA/MND) for the Oro Cruz Project. The EA/MND, and other associated documents were posted for public review online at the BLM NEPA Register. These documents are also available for public review at the BLM El Centro Field Office located at 1661 South 4th Street in El Centro, California. The BLM's September 1, 2023 decision is subject to a 30-day public appeal period.

The Imperial County Planning Commission (ICPC) held a hearing on September 13, 2023 to make determinations regarding the Oro Cruz Project, including, but not limited to, resolutions adopting the EA/MND, the Mitigated Negative Declaration for the Reclamation Plan, and the Reclamation Plan. The passing of these resolutions was deferred, awaiting further information to be provided by the BLM to the ICPC and as such, the hearing was adjourned to a yet to be determined date.

Qualified Person (QP)

The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been prepared, reviewed and approved by David Tupper, P.Geo. (British Columbia), Southern Empire's VP Exploration and a Qualified Person (QP) within the context of Canadian Securities Administrators' National Instrument 43-101; Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101).

About Southern Empire Resources Corp.

Southern Empire is engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of metals and minerals deposits in the American southwest and northern México; particularly focused on those that are amenable to lower-cost metal extraction methodologies such as heap leaching. To achieve its goals, Southern Empire has assembled a board of directors, all veterans in mine and corporate finance, exploration, permitting, development, and operations that will guide the future growth of the company.

In northern México (Sonora, Chihuahua, and Durango states), Southern Empire has a leachable copper project and three gold projects, which are:

• Centauro Gold Project, Escalón, Chihuahua;
• Pedro Gold Project, Mapimí, Durango; and,
• La Loma Gold Project, Nazas, Durango.

These gold projects are located along what Southern Empire is calling the Mapimí Gold Corridor, a 150-kilometre, southeast-trending Oligocene tectonostratigraphic belt, the regional geological setting of which, together with numerous coincident geological, mineralogical and geochemical characteristics as observed at Centauro, Pedro and La Loma, strongly supports the proposition that the Mapimí Gold Corridor has significant potential to host bulk-mineable, low sulfidation epithermal and/or Carlin-style gold deposits.

In the Cargo Muchacho mountains of Imperial County, California, Southern Empire's wholly-owned Oro Cruz Project has the potential to re-establish gold production from a moderate tonnage oxide gold deposit located approximately 22.5 kilometres (14 miles) southeast of the operating Mesquite gold mine of Equinox Gold Corp., which has now produced more than five million ounces. At Oro Cruz, extensive historical drilling and large-scale open-pit and underground mining of the American Girl, Padre y Madre, Queen and Cross oxide gold deposits by the American Girl Mining Joint Venture (AGMJV) of MK Gold Company and Hecla Mining Company occurred between 1987 and 1996. During that time, gold was recovered by heap leaching of lower-grade ores and milling of higher-grade ores. Following significant definition drilling and underground development, the Oro Cruz open-pit and underground mines operated successfully for only one year (producing about 61,000 ounces of gold) AGMJV operations ceased in late 1996 as collapsing gold prices caused the entire operation to be shuttered and decommissioned, leaving the Oro Cruz property with many gold exploration targets in addition to a historical inferred resource estimate, reported In 2011 by Lincoln Mining Corp., totalling 341,800 ounces gold based on 4,386,000 tonnes averaging 2.2 grams gold per tonne at a cut-off grade of 0.68 g/t Au (4,835,000 tons at 0.07 ounce gold per ton; please refer to the Cautionary Notice Regarding the Oro Cruz Property Historical Resource Estimate below). Although no surface facilities remain, the underground infrastructure at Oro Cruz (including a 2.4 kilometre haulage ramp, sublevels and draw points) remains in excellent condition and the open pit was abandoned just after stripping was completed prior to the start of Stage II pit expansion.

Southern Empire has received a Decision Record and Finding of No Significant Impact regarding federal permitting of Oro Cruz and is finalizing state and county permitting that will allow for up to 65 exploration, confirmation and metallurgical drill hole sites at Oro Cruz to support a new resource estimate, and to also test the potential of waste rock and decommissioned heap leach piles to yield residual gold production.

For more information on Southern Empire, its people and its projects, please visit our website: www.smp.gold.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Southern Empire Resources Corp.,

Dale Wallster, CEO and Director

For further information on Southern Empire please visit both www.smp.gold and SEDAR+ or contact: Lubica Keighery, (778) 889-5476, lubica@smp.gold.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Notice on Forward-Looking Information and Forward-Looking Statements

Information provided in this news release may contain forward-looking information or forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this news release. Such information or statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations and are not guarantees of future performance. Southern Empire cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond its respective control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to Southern Empire's limited operating history, the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations, results of exploration programs on its projects and those risks and uncertainties identified in its annual and interim financial statements and management discussion and analysis. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, Southern Empire undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.

Cautionary Notice Regarding the Oro Cruz Project Historical Resource Estimate

The historical resource estimate outlined above is disclosed in a technical report dated April 29, 2011, prepared for Lincoln Mining Corp. by Tetra Tech, Inc. and filed on Canadian Securities Administrators' System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR+). It is termed an inferred mineral resource, which is a category set out in NI 43-101. It was based on historical reverse circulation and core drill hole sample, underground channel sample, and blasthole sample assay results and calculated using ordinary kriging to estimate gold grades in 10-foot-by-10-foot-by-five-foot blocks. Accordingly, Southern Empire considers this historical estimate reliable as well as relevant as it represents key targets for future exploration work. However, a QP has not done sufficient work to verify or classify the historical estimate as a current mineral resource and Southern Empire is not treating this historical estimate as current mineral resources.

SOURCE: Southern Empire Resources Corp.