PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA--(Marketwire - July 8, 2011) - Southern Hemisphere Mining Limited ("Southern Hemisphere" or the "Company") (News - Market indicators)(ASX:SUH)

Highlights

• Significant copper mineralisation intersected at Chitigua Copper Project, with Diamond drill hole DDH-CH-002 intersecting two zones:
  • 46m @ 0.40% Cu from 3m

  • 23m @ 0.41% Cu from 63m

• Results included a best one-metre copper intercept of 2.29% Cu.

• This together with its location on the Western Fault highlights the potential for a large porphyry copper system at Chitigua.

• Reverse Circulation (RC) drill rig contracted to increase the rate of drilling at Chitigua to define resource development opportunities.

• Scout drilling at Santa Gracia and Tres Cruces projects has returned low-grade mineralisation, with the Company now focusing on other opportunities.

International mining company Southern Hemisphere Mining Limited ("Southern Hemisphere" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on exploration activities within its portfolio of copper projects in Chile, South America.

The Company's strategy is to explore for a stand-alone copper project at its Chitigua concession and, by conducting scout drilling programs, to target an aggregation of resources at its cluster of concessions close to the city of La Serena, which includes the Santa Gracia, El Arrayan, and Tres Cruces prospects.

Results have now been received from initial drilling programs completed at Chitigua, Santa Gracia and Tres Cruces.

Chitigua Project

The Chitigua Project is located north of the El Abra mine and south of the Quebrada Blanca mine along the Western Fault Belt, a major geological feature in Chile. This is the richest copper metallogenic zone in the world which hosts, amongst others, the Chuquicamata and Escondida mines (see Figure 1).

To view "Figure  1. - Location Map of Chitigua Project", please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/fg1_sh.jpg

Southern Hemisphere conducted scout drilling programs at two zones located 6km apart at the Chitigua Project. These zones, the Breccia zone and the Church zone, were selected as a result of surface reconnaissance and mapping.

Breccia Zone

A total of five holes were drilled in the Breccia zone, which is located 5km along the strike length from the Church zone (see Attachment 1 for detailed results).

DDH-CH-002 Diamond drill hole intersected two mineralised zones. The first zone of mineralisation, from 3m to 49m, averaged 0.40% Cu and the second, from 63m to 86m, returned an intercept of 23m averaged 0.41% Cu.

Both RC-CH-03 and RC-CH-04 were interpreted to be within pyritic halos around the porphyry zone and, despite being heavily mineralised with pyrite, had only sporadic chalcopyrite mineralisation.

To view "Figure 2. - Drill location Map of Chitigua Project – Breccia Zone", please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/fg2_sh.jpg

The Company is very encouraged by these results and has contracted another drilling company to supply an RC drill rig that will increase the rate of drilling. This will enable the Company to develop a more detailed understanding of the Chitigua geological profile and move more quickly to a resource drilling phase.

Church Zone

The Company drilled three holes at the Church zone (see drill hole location plan in Figure 3 and schedule of drill holes in Attachment 2, together with the best Church zone copper intercepts and analysis results).

To view "Figure 3. - Drill location Map of Chitigua Project – Church Zone", please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/fg3_sh.jpg

These holes were designed to test the geological model developed by the Company, which postulated that the mineralisation at the Church zone is situated close to a contact between a Dacite intrusive stock and the granodiorite/monzanite host.

The drill results at the Church zone verified the Company's model, but the grades were sporadic and generally low and further work is required before the Company is in a position to target economic accumulations of mineralisation.

A trench 720m to the north east of the DDH-CH-01, adjacent the Western Fault, was sampled and the results of this sampling program are shown below:

Each of these channel samples are one metre true widths.

Commenting on the results, the Company's Managing Director, Trevor Tennant, said: "The results from the Breccia Zone indicate that we can drill out from this location and build on the encouraging intercepts returned in hole DDH-CH-02. Hole DDH-CH-03 was a major step-out some 175m north-east of DDH-CH-02 and may in hindsight have been too widely spaced.

"Chitigua is a large porphyry target and will require additional time and drilling to prove up. Our drilling to date has been hampered by very low drill productivity, mainly caused by high altitudes and cold weather. This is being addressed by engaging an additional contractor with a larger RC drill machine"

Central Cluster Projects

Southern Hemisphere's central cluster of concessions, all of which are located within a 60km radius of the City of La Serena, lie within the coastal cordillera belt in a north-north-west trending structural corridor that extends for some 150km from south of Andacollo to Los Chorus Creek in the north.

The Company has completed scout drilling programs at the El Arrayan, Santa Gracia and Tres Cruces projects. The El Arrayan project yielded positive results and the Company is currently negotiating to acquire a property to the immediate south of the El Arrayan area.

Drilling at Santa Gracia and Tres Cruces did not yield the opportunity for quickly moving on to a resource drilling stage and will be relegated in priority.

El Arrayan

The best drilling results from the central cluster of tenements were from the El Arrayan project. These included 17 metres @ 2.03% Cu and 26 metres @ 1.54% Cu, which were reported on 17 February 2011 and 15 April 2011.

Santa Gracia

Two target areas for porphyry copper mineralization, La Cuyana and San Sebastian were drill tested. The resulting intercepts were sporadic and low grade.

The drill schedule and best of the analysis results are shown in Attachment 3.

Tres Cruces

The target at Tres Cruces is mantle type deposits that are higher grade. Some of the holes intercepted mantle style mineralisation but the grades were generally low.

While the Company has only completed first-pass scout drilling, the results from neither Santa Gracia nor Tres Cruces demonstrated sufficient consistency to warrant conducting further exploration activities.

The drill schedule and best of the analysis results are shown in Attachment 4.

Drill location maps for both the Santa Gracia and Tres Cruces drilling campaigns are available on the Company's website at www.shmining.com.au.

To view "Figure 4. - Location Map of Central Cluster Projects", please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/fg4_sh.jpg  

Sampling and Analysis Procedures

From the RC Drill holes, 5kg samples were taken from each metre interval. The samples are derived from riffle splitting each metre intercept. The samples were sent to Andes Analytical Assay Ltda (Chile) in Santiago for sample preparation and analysis.

Assay samples from the Diamond core drilling program were taken after splitting core and sending half core samples for each metre interval to Andes Analytical Assay Ltda (Chile) in Santiago.

Duplicate samples were taken on a 1 in 20 basis.

Analysis was undertaken using atomic absorption spectrometry methods. Andes Analytical Assay Ltda (Chile) is an independent full service commercial laboratory accredited under ISO 9001:2008. Standard samples and repeat analyses were used by the laboratory to provide checks on the assay results.

This news release has been prepared by management and no regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein.

Competent Person / Qualified Person Statement

Trevor Tennant (Managing Director - Southern Hemisphere), a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, is a „Competent Personâ¬x as defined in the 2004 Edition of the 'Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves' and is a „Qualified Personâ¬x under National Instrument 43-101 - 'Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects'.

Mr. Tennant was responsible for the design and conduct of this exploration drilling campaign, supervised the preparation of the technical information in this release and has the relevant experience and competence of the subject matter.

Mr. Tennant consents to the inclusion of such information in this news release in the form and context in which it appears.