Mr. Blaine Monaghan reports

PACIFIC RIDGE OPTIONS YUKON GOLD PROJECTS TO LABRADOR GOLD

Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd. has optioned the Mariposa gold project and the Eureka Dome gold project to Labrador Gold Corp. (LAB: TSX Venture Exchange). Eureka Dome and Mariposa are located in the Yukon's White gold district.

"We are delighted to have found a well-funded partner to advance Mariposa and Eureka Dome while we remain focused on our B.C. copper projects," said Blaine Monaghan, president and chief executive officer of Pacific Ridge. "With Fuerte's recent acquisition of the Coffee deposit, the White gold district is heating up again. I look forward to watching Labrador advance these projects, especially Mariposa, which returned 2.44 g/t gold over 39 metres in 2011 drilling but has seen little exploration since then."

Option agreement terms

Labrador can acquire a 100-per-cent interest in both Mariposa and Eureka Dome by making cash payments totalling $500,000, issuing 6.67 million shares and making exploration expenditures totalling $5.4-million over a four-year period (see Table 1). In addition, upon the filing of a positive feasibility study, Labrador will make a $1.0-million cash payment. The agreement is subject to regulatory approval.

Mariposa

Owned 100 per cent by Pacific Ridge, Mariposa comprises 795 claims and is located 120 kilometres southeast of Dawson City in the Yukon's White gold district of the Dawson Range mineral belt. The Dawson Range is a regional major northwest-trending structural corridor which hosts numerous gold and copper deposits, including Fuerte's Coffee deposit, located 30 kilometres west-southwest of Mariposa, and White Gold's Golden Saddle, located 40 kilometres west-northwest of Mariposa.

The geological setting of Mariposa is similar to Coffee and Golden Saddle in terms of the host lithologies, the structural controls and brittle style of deformation and the nature of gold mineralization. Prior exploration identified an open-ended seven-kilometre-long horizon of altered, pyrite-bearing quartz mica schist in the Skookum Main zone. This unit is locally flanked by intrusive and mafic rock units, a setting favourable for hosting a gold-mineralizing system. Significant drill intersections at Skookum include 2.44 g/t gold over 39 metres (see Pacific Ridge news release dated July 28, 2011).

Eureka Dome

Owned 100 per cent by Pacific Ridge, Eureka Dome comprises 76 claims and is road accessible from Dawson City. Placer gold occurrences have been reported in most creeks draining Eureka Dome and geochemical anomalies suggest the presence of a high-level epithermal style alteration system. Prior workers reported breccia float samples grading to 14 g/t gold and silt samples running to 2,190 parts per billion gold on tributaries of upper Eureka Creek. Reconnaissance sampling by Pacific Ridge has defined a gold-mercury-molybdenum-antimony soil anomaly that requires further follow-up.

About Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd.

A Fiore Group company, Pacific Ridge's goal is to become British Columbia's leading copper exploration company. The Kliyul copper-gold project, located in the prolific Quesnel terrane close to existing infrastructure, is the company's flagship project. In addition to Kliyul, Pacific Ridge's project portfolio includes the RDP copper-gold project, the Onjo copper-gold project and the Redton copper-gold project, all located in B.C. The company would like to acknowledge that its B.C. projects are in the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the Gitxsan Nation, McLeod Lake Indian Band, Nak'azdli Whut'en, Takla Nation, and Tsay Keh Dene Nation.

The technical information contained within this news release has been prepared under the supervision of, and reviewed and approved by, Danette Schwab, PGeo, vice-president, exploration, of the company, and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 -- Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

We seek Safe Harbor.