BLM Approval Received for Drilling at Southern Empire’s Oro Cruz Project

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 5, 2023 / Southern Empire Resources Corp. (Southern Empire; TSX-V:SMP; Frankfurt:5RE; OTC:SMPEF) is very pleased to announce that in an August 31, 2023 Press Release, the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) stated that Southern Empire's subsidiary, SMP Gold Corp., was approved to "move forward with mineral exploration on public lands" at its wholly owned Oro Cruz Project located in Imperial County, California.

David Tupper, Southern Empire's VP of Exploration stated, "Receiving the BLM's approval for our planned Oro Cruz exploration is a major step forward for us, one that brings us much closer to both drilling the high-grade, oxide gold zone of the Cross Mine, which last produced gold in 1996, and to establish surface infrastructure that will enable us to access its underground workings, which remain in excellent condition."

On September 1, 2023, the BLM issued a Decision Record (DR), based on information provided by an Environmental Assessment prepared pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) and a signed Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI), approving proposed exploration activities (the Proposed Action) as described in both Southern Empire's Plan of Operations (the Plan) for the Oro Cruz Project and in the Environmental Assessment/Mitigated Negative Declaration (EA/MND) jointly prepared in coordination with the Imperial County Planning Department (ICPD), which is the lead agency for the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) permitting for the Oro Cruz Project.

BLM approval of the Proposed Action set out in the Oro Cruz Project Plan of Operations allows for:

• Establishment of up to 65 drill pads in seven drill target areas
• Reverse Circulation (RC) and/or core drilling of up to 65 drill holes
• Improvement and construction of access roads
• Creation of a staging area at the Cross Mine underground portal for infrastructure required to support future underground drill programs.

The Plan proposes that Southern Empire conduct the Proposed Action on lands administered and managed by the BLM that specifically occur within a 257-hectare (ha; 635 acre) area of the ~184,000-acre Picacho Area of Critical Environmental Concern, which covers important cultural and biological resources and the historic Cargo Muchacho - Tumco Mining district. The actual surface disturbance from the Proposed Action is limited to approximately 8.3 ha (20.5 acres) and most of the proposed drill sites are within areas previously disturbed by the historical American Girl Mining Joint Venture operations, which concluded in 1996.