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

Southern Empire Updates Permitting Status

for Centauro Gold and Oro Cruz Projects

VANCOUVER, BC

,

Sept. 18, 2023

/CNW/ - Southern Empire Resources Corp. ("Southern Empire")

(TSXV: 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. (CNW

Group/Southern Empire Resources Corp.)

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

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.

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For further information:

For further information on Southern Empire please visit both

www.smp.gold and SEDAR+ or contact: Lubica Keighery, (778) 889-5476, [email protected]

CO: Southern Empire Resources Corp.

CNW 18:28e 18-SEP-23