VANCOUVER, July 11 /CNW/ - Southern Arc Minerals Inc. (TSX Venture: SA) is pleased to announce that the company has received assay results from the first 9 scout drill holes completed at the Lemonga Prospect located on Sumbawa Island in south-central Indonesia (see attached Figure 1 and map). The map accompanying this news release is posted on Sedar.

Southern Arc Minerals Inc. ("Southern Arc") is a newly listed Canadian company currently exploring for precious and base metals on two mineral concessions on the islands of Lombok and Sumbawa in south-central Indonesia. The concessions are held under preliminary general survey licenses (SIPPs) covering areas of 58,483 ha on Lombok and 31,204 ha on Sumbawa. The Lemonga Prospect is centrally located in the Sumbawa SIPP. Newmont's copper/gold Batu Hijau mine (2004 annual production 683 million pounds of copper, 715,000 oz gold) is located in the adjoining Contract of Work 15 km south of Southern Arc's concession.

The Lemonga Prospect is focused on a low-sulphidation epithermal system over which surface mapping by Southern Arc and previous operators has confirmed hydrothermal argillic alteration within an area approximately 1 km East-West by 1.5 km North-South. Five gold bearing quartz veins, named Amy, Betty, Cici, Dessy and Evi, have been identified within the alteration zone. These veins generally trend between North-South and Northeast-Southwest and have widths up to 10 meters wide at surface. The prospect geology and alteration as well as drill hole locations are shown in Figure 1.

The best exposed vein, the Amy Vein, has a mapped strike extent of at least 950 meters. Southern Arc has completed 7 shallow diamond drill holes spaced at intervals of between 100 meters and 250 meters along the strike of this vein. All holes were drilled at right angles to the steeply dipping vein structures. Moderate core angles (40 degrees - 50 degrees) indicate that the vein structures are vertical in orientation, but because of the "pinch and swell" nature of veining and limited number of intersections, true vein widths at this stage are not reported. Highlights of drill hole intervals returned from the Amy Vein are:

The remaining 5 drill holes in the Amy Vein returned anomalous intersections of 0.87 g/t Au or greater. All drill hole results received to date are summarized in Table 1.

The program to date has confirmed the extensive strike length of the Amy Vein and the presence of high grade shoots within it. It should be further noted that all intersections are within 75 m of the surface and the drill holes are widely spaced along the trend of the structure. The depth of the structure remains to be tested and there is potential for identification of additional high grade shoots in between drill holes.

Drill holes LDG-08 and LDG-09 targeted the Betty Vein and intersected anomalous but lower grade quartz vein intervals:

Scout drilling of the other three veins, Cici, Dessy and Evi is in progress.

TABLE 1. WEST SUMBAWA PROJECT - LEMONGA PROSPECT

Significant Drill Intersections:

Aneka Tambang 1991 Drill Results From Southern Portion of Amy Vein

Previous 1991 drilling by state mining company Aneka Tambang consisted of 7 shallow drill holes totaling 260 metres, all drilled in the southern half of the Amy Vein. The company has obtained the records of 6 of the holes, with the best intersection being 3.36 g/t Au and 68.6 g/t Ag over 12.15 metres. Drill holes BOS-01, BOS-01A, BOS-2 and BOS-3 were all located on the Amy Vein between LDG-01 and LDG-04. BOS-04 is located on the Amy Vein 300m south of LDG-01 and BOS-05 is located on the Amy Vein 450m south of LDG-01.

More detailed information on the Aneka Tambang results disclosed above is contained in the following table:

TABLE 2. ANEKA TAMBANG 1991 LEMONGA DRILL RESULTS

Significant Drill Intersections:

Qualified Person and Quality Control and Assurance

The information in this release has been compiled under the supervision of Southern Arc's Vice President of Exploration Hamish Campbell B.Sc.Geology, MAusIMM. Mr. Campbell has over 20 years of international mineral exploration experience including 17 years in Indonesia during which he has held such positions as Exploration Manager, Senior Geologist and Consulting Geologist. Mr. Campbell has sufficient experience relevant to the style of mineralization under consideration and qualifies as a Qualified Person as defined in terms of NI 43-101.

All drilling was diamond core drilling and samples for assay were half- core, cut by diamond rock saw. Sample analysis was carried out by Intertek Testing Services (an affiliate of Bondar Clegg) at its Jakarta laboratory. Gold was determined by 50 g fire assay using an atomic absorption finish giving a detection limit of 0.01 g/t Au. Silver was determined by atomic absorption spectrophometry. Southern Arc employs a rigorous quality control program which includes insertion of blanks and certified reference materials in the assay stream one to two samples in every 25 or fewer samples. This is in addition to internal quality control measures undertaken by the contracted analytical facilities.

On behalf of the Board of
Southern Arc Minerals Inc.

"John Proust"

President and CEO

"The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release"

For further information: Southern Arc Minerals Inc., Suite 1500, Box 1078, 885 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC, V6C 3E8, Canada, Telephone: (604) 676-5241, Fax: (604) 676-5246