Mr. Dale Wallster reports

SOUTHERN EMPIRE UPDATES PERMITTING STATUS FOR ITS ORO CRUZ PROJECT IN CALIFORNIA

Subsequent to approval by the Imperial County Planning Commission at a hearing held on Jan. 10, 2024, Southern Empire Resources Corp.'s subsidiary, SMP Gold Corp., has received a notice of determination approving the reclamation plan for the Oro Cruz project exploration plan of operations that governs the proposed exploration drill program at its wholly owned Oro Cruz project located in Imperial county, California.

"Having previously received federal approvals from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act on Sept. 1, 2023, the recent approval of the Oro Cruz project reclamation plan by the Imperial County Planning Commission, the lead agency for permitting related to the California Environmental Quality Act, is a major step forward for Southern Empire. We look forward to drilling the high-grade, oxide gold zone of the Oro Cruz Cross mine, from which gold was last produced in 1996. I would like to especially thank our staff and consultants for their commitment to the Oro Cruz project permitting process and our shareholders for their continued patience," commented Dale Wallster, Southern Empire's chief executive officer.

The plan proposes that SMP Gold conduct mineral exploration drilling activities requiring up to 8.31 hectares (20.54 acres) of surface disturbance on, primarily, previously mined and disturbed land administered and managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management. The proposed temporary drill pads, operational staging site and access routes occur within an encompassing 253-hectare (626-acre) project area (as defined in the plan) located in the southwest corner of the 184,000-acre Picacho area of critical environmental concern, the latter designated to include important biological habitats, indigenous peoples' cultural sites and the historic Cargo Muchacho-Tumco mining district. The proposed action is within areas previously disturbed by the historical American Girl Mining joint venture operations, which concluded in 1996, as gold prices declined and ultimately bottomed at $251.70 (U.S.) in August of 1999.

Highlights of the plan include:

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

At the Jan. 10, 2024, hearing, the ICPC made the following determinations regarding the proposed action and the reclamation plan:

1. The Oro Cruz project will not have a significant effect on the environment.
2. A negative declaration was prepared for the Oro Cruz project pursuant to the provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act.
3. Mitigation measures were made a condition of the approval of the project.
4. A mitigation reporting or monitoring plan was adopted for the project.
5. A statement of overriding considerations was not adopted for the project.
6. Findings were made pursuant to the provisions of CEQA.

The plan is designed in accordance with performance standards in 43 CFR 3809.420 and other federal and state laws related to environmental protection and protection of cultural resources and to attain the stated level of protection and reclamation required by specific laws in the California desert conservation area. The BLM's decision record and signed finding of no significant impact, the environmental assessment/mitigated negative declaration, and other associated documents were posted for public review on Sept. 1, 2023, on-line at the BLM NEPA register. The 2,895 pages of documentation supporting the proposed action and the reclamation plan are available at the Imperial county planning and development service website. Although Oro Cruz project approvals have been received from both the BLM and Imperial county, these are being appealed by parties opposing to mining in Imperial county. The outcome of these appeals is yet to be determined.

Southern Empire's continuing environmental and permitting efforts are co-ordinated by Del Fortner Consulting of Tucson, Ariz. Its broader environmental assessment and permitting team includes:

• Sespe Consulting Inc., specialist on SMARA and CEQA baseline environmental analysis, permitting and reclamation plan requirements that assist in document preparation for the CEQA analysis;
• Stantec Consulting Services Inc., an international firm that liaises directly with both the BLM and the ICPD to prepare National Environmental Policy Act documentation for the BLM and co-ordinate the CEQA environmental review process with the ICPD;
• WestLand Resources Inc., specialist in environmental engineering, permitting and planning, which has completed the Oro Cruz project baseline environmental and cultural studies and has provided services necessary to comply with both the NEPA and CEQA permitting requirements.

Qualified person

The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been prepared, reviewed and approved by David Tupper, PGeo (British Columbia), Southern Empire's vice-president, exploration, and a qualified person within the context of Canadian Securities Administrators' National Instrument 43-101 (Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects).

About Southern Empire Resources Corp.

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

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 an oxide gold deposit located approximately 22.5 kilometres (14 miles) southeast of the operating Mesquite gold mine of Equinox Gold Corp., which has 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 (being 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 Cross open-pit and underground mines operated for only one year, producing about 61,000 ounces of gold, until AGMJV operations ceased in late 1996 as collapsing gold prices caused their entire operations to be shuttered and decommissioned. This left the Oro Cruz property with many gold exploration targets in addition to the Cross oxide gold deposit, having a historical inferred resource estimate, as 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). 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 its Stage 2 expansion.

Southern Empire has received a decision record and finding of no significant impact regarding federal BLM permitting of the Oro Cruz project and a notice of determination regarding the Oro Cruz project reclamation plan from Imperial county, the lead State of California agency responsible for permitting. Southern Empire continues to finalize ancillary Oro Cruz project 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.

In northern Mexico (Sonora, Chihuahua and Durango), Southern Empire has a leachable copper prospect and three gold projects having bulk tonnage potential. Its Mexican projects are the:

• Suaqui Verde copper project, Suaqui Grande, Sonora;
• Centauro gold project, Escalon, Chihuahua;
• Pedro gold project, Mapimi, Durango;
• La Loma gold project, Nazas, Durango.

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

We seek Safe Harbor.