Vancouver, B.C.: SOUTHERN ARC MINERALS (TSX Venture: SA) (“Southern Arc” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce results from its first two holes of the Phase 2 drilling program at the Central Raja target, Pelangan Prospect.

Drillholes PLD001 and PLD002 intersected the Central Raja gold-bearing epithermal breccia zone at depth below the earlier shallow Phase 1 drillhole RDG01. RDG01 had returned an intersection of 10.70 m (true width 6.8m) @ 2.93 g/t Au (including 4.70m (true width 2.7 m) @ 5.80 g/t Au) previously reported. These new holes targeted depths of 60 m and 120 m below the RDG01 interval.

PLD001 and PLD002 intersected the following mineralized intercepts:

PLD001  4.85 m (true width 3.3m) @ 7.11 g/t Au 18.5 g/t Ag from 56.55 m

(including 1.35 m (true width 0.9m) @ 16.67 g/t Au 17.0 g/t Ag from 56.55 m)

and

PLD002 17.25 m (true width 5.7m) @ 5.73 g/t Au 11.7 g/t Ag from 121.60 m

(including 8.75 m (true width 2.9m) @ 10.51 g/t Au 20.7 g/t Ag)

Results from PLD001 and PLD002 support the concept of increasing gold grade with depth in Central Raja and confirm the existence of high-grade shoots within the system. They also highlight the need for further extensive deeper drilling at Pelangan.

“These initial results of Phase 2 drilling are very encouraging and highlight the significant gold potential not only at Pelangan, but also for the Mencanggah area. There, surface mapping and sampling of similar auriferous MSBs with an aggregate strike length in excess of 15 km have already identified a number of high priority drill-ready targets…” commented CEO John Proust.

Pelangan Prospect

The Pelangan gold prospect is located in the northwest section of a 13 km long, northwest trending structural corridor of epithermal and porphyry mineralization. This district-scale field also includes the Company’s Selodong porphyry copper/gold prospect and the Mencanggah epithermal/porphyry prospect (Figure 1).

Surface mapping and shallow scout drilling at Pelangan defined extensive, structurally controlled, epithermal gold-bearing breccia zones (termed Mineralized Structural Breccia or “MSB”) occurring over an area of 3 by 2 km. Five major zones of mineralisation (Raja, Kayu Putih, Tanjung-Jati, Lala and Ratu) have been delineated, comprising an aggregate strike length of approximately 4.6 km.

Phase 1 scout drilling during 2006- 07 (51 shallow drill holes, 3,762 m) tested an aggregate strike length of approximately 3.5 km. Results from central and southern zones of Raja (Table 1 and Figure 2 ), southern Kayu Putih and portions of Tanjung-Jati confirmed continuous of zones of gold mineralization over strike lengths up to 900 metres.


Phase 2 of drilling commenced in August 2008. This program was designed to test for down dip continuity of mineralization, sustained vein widths and the potential for higher grades at depth, (Figure 3). The Company is pleased to report very encouraging results from these first two holes on all three objectives.

The positions of the intersections in drill holes PLD001 and PLD002 are shown on the map (Figure 2), and in the long section presented in Figure 3. Host rocks for the gold mineralized breccias comprise chlorite altered volcanic breccias and variably altered phyric andesites.

Drilling has identified a ‘bonanza’ episode within the Central Raja MSBs, characterized by significantly higher gold-tenor (generally >10g/t), low silver/gold ratio, and specific vein textures. Such bonanza episodes can localize within the vein zone to form high-grade ‘ore-shoots’ which can add significant ounces to a deposit within relatively small areas.

The importance of such ore-shoots in epithermal systems are well illustrated by such examples as the ‘Crown Shoot’ from the Cracow Mine (Central Queensland, Australia: Newcrest Mining) where 400,000 oz Au were inferred from an approximate 200 by 300m area; similarly the ‘Royal Shoot’ at Cracow added a resource of 390,000 oz Au from an irregular 100 by 470m plunging elongate-shoot. An extraordinary example is from the Kencana K1 ore-body at Gosowong (North Maluku, Indonesia: Newcrest Mining) which contained 1.8 Moz gold from a roughly ovoid shaped 260 by 500m shoot, (information from Newcrest Mining Limited website).

Early recognition of ore- shoot controls such as structural intersections, favourable host lithologies, and distribution of high-grade surface material will aid in determining the 3-dimensional geometry and hence targeting of the bonanza-event within the mineralised structural breccias. Southern Arc will use this information to aggressively target and define potential ore-shoots with the aim of quickly developing the gold resources at Pelangan.

Qualified Person and Quality Control and Assurance

The information in this release has been compiled under the supervision of Southern Arc’s Chief Geologist, Andrew Rowe B. App. Sc. Geology, MAusIMM. Mr. Rowe has over 18 years of international mineral exploration experience throughout SE and Central Asia and Australia. During this time he has held such positions as Chief Geologist – Feasibility Studies, Senior Geologist and Consulting Geologist. Mr. Rowe 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 assaying of samples was undertaken by the ITS laboratory in Jakarta. ITS is one of the world’s largest product and commodity testing, inspection and certification organizations. The Jakarta laboratory is ISO 17025 accredited and employs a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) for sample tracking, quality control and reporting.

On behalf of the Board of

Southern Arc Minerals Inc.

“John Proust”

Chairman and CEO

For Further Information Please Contact:

John G. Proust, Chairman and CEO

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as such term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

 

 

TABLE 1. PELANGAN PROSPECT – RAJA/RATU SIGNIFICANT DRILL INTERSECTIONS

 

HOLE ID	Grid		RL	Azimuth	Dip	Total		Interval				SIGNIFICANT		True
						Depth						INTERSECTIONS		Width
			(m)	(….°)	(….°)				(m)
	Easting	Northing				(m)						( Au / Ag g/t )		(m)
								6.30	-	17.00	m	10.7 m @ 2.93 / 20		6.8
							(incl:	7.50	-	12.20	m)	4.7 m @ 5.8 / 27		2.7
								29.80	-	32.75	m	2.95 m @ 1.72		1.7
RDG01	384,633	9,028,725	208	45	-55	66.50
							(incl:	30.20	-	30.70	m)	0.5 m @ 4.9		0.3
								61.65	-	65.10	m	3.45 m @ 4.13 / 64		2.0
							(incl:	63.20	-	64.00	m)	1.1 m @ 7.62 / 129		0.6
								17.90	-	27.05	m	9.15 m @ 1.1	/ 23	5.3
								30.50	-	35.25	m	4.75 m @ 1.8 / 9		2.7
RDG02	384,683	9,028,632	230	70	-55	59.70
								40.45	-	46.55	m	6.1 m @ 2.4 / 17		3.5
							(incl	42.45	-	45.95	m)	3.5 @ 3.8 /26		2.0
								0.00	-	6.30		6.3 m @ 2.5 / 81		3.6
							(incl:	1.20	-	2.80	m)	1.6 m @ 5.7 / 50		0.9
RDG03	384,670	9,028,697	217	50	-55	58.80
								23.20	-	35.30		12.1 m @ 2.3	/ 16	6.9
							(incl	23.20	-	26.35	m)	3.15 m @ 4.8 / 21.6		1.8
								8.35	-	17.85	m	9.5 m @ 6.2 / 41		5.4
RDG04	384,690	9,028,591	202	82	-55	48.00	(incl	12.25	-	15.30	m)	3.05 m @ 14.2 / 61		1.7
								25.00	-	28.00	m	3 m @ 1.4 /	16	1.7
								10.00	-	32.95		22.95 m @ 4.1 / 17		13.2
							(incl:	20.70	-	22.95	m,	2.25 m @ 14.6 / 10		1.3
RDG05	384,733	9,028,459	205	50	-55	52.30
							and	27.20	-	28.20	m)	1 m @ 21.4 / 23		0.6
								41.75	-	43.10		1.35 m @ 1.6	/ 13	0.8
								9.95	-	26.05	m	16.1 m @ 2.7	/ 23	9.2
RDG06	384,752	9,028,408	245	60	-55	53.70
							(incl	10.80	-	16.50	m)	5.7 m @ 5.2 / 30		3.3
								5.10	-	16.40		11.3 m @ 2.8	/ 22	6.4
							(incl	9.10	-	10.70	m)	1.6 m @ 6.6 / 38		0.9
								35.15	-	54.90	m	19.75 m @ 4.6 / 28		11.3
							(incl	35.15	-	37.65	m,	2.5 m @ 5.5 / 28		1.4
RDG07	384,802	9,028,378	280	220	-55	74.10
							and	40.55	-	44.45	m,	3.9 m @ 13.5	/ 22	2.3
							and	49.50	-	54.10	m)	4.6 m @ 3.6 / 24		2.7
								59.50	-	60.50	m	1 m @ 1.2 /	27	0.6
								65.35	-	66.60	m	1.25 m @ 2.7	/ 24	0.7
RDG08	384,819	9,028,292	290	50	-55	75.20		42.80	-	55.90	m	13.1 m @ 1.3	/ 15	7.5
							(incl	49.05	-	50.90	m,	1.85 m @ 2.5	/ 16	1.0

							and	53.10	-	54.80	m,	1.7 m @ 2.6 / 27	1.0
RDG09
	384903	9028142	327	50	-60	81		0	-	6.8	m	6.8 m @ 1.0 / 14	3.4
								29		51		22 m @ 1.0 / 9	11.0
RDG12	384846	9028199	305	60	-60	90.1						incl. 3.8 m @ 2.3 /
							(incl	47.2		51			1.9
												13
QDG01	384,460	9,028,795	113	360	50	107.15		3.05	-	4.20	m	1.15 m @ 1.4	0.7
								1.00	-	2.75	m	1.75 m @ 3.5	1.0
QDG02	384465	9028795	113	180	-55	70.10
								64.50	-	65.85	m	1.35 m @ 2.1	0.8
QDG03	384,458	9,028,899	74	180	-55	54.50		42.55	-	44.10	m	1.55 m @ 1.9	0.9
								51.25	-	54.95	m	3.7 m @ 2.3	2.1
	384,492	9,028,922	78	150	-55	74.00	(incl	52.10	-	53.50	m)	1.4 m @ 4.9	0.8
QDG04
								69.75	-	74.00	m	4.25 m @ 2.1 / 10.4	2.4
							(incl	69.75	-	72.20	m)	2.45 m @ 3.2 / 16	1.4
QDG06	384,526	9,028,861	99	90	-55	55.60		28.80	-	29.80	m	1 m @ 7.36 / 186	0.5