PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA--(Marketwire - April 15, 2011) - International mining company Southern Hemisphere Mining Limited (News - Market indicators)(ASX:SUH) ("Southern Hemisphere" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on ongoing exploration drilling, trenching and sampling programs on 5 of the 13 project areas, within its portfolio of copper-gold projects in Chile, South America.

The Company's strategy is to explore for a stand-alone copper project at its Chitigua concession and to aggregate copper-gold resources within its cluster of concessions located close to the city of La Serena. This cluster includes Santa Gracia, El Arrayan, Romeral and Tres Cruces concessions.

All of these concessions are located within a 50 km radius area, and lie within the coastal cordillera belt in a north-northwest trending structural corridor that extends for some 150km from south of Andacollo to Los Choros Creek in the north.

The Company will initially conduct scout drill programs on these properties before deciding on resource drilling priorities.

In addition, the Company is testing the opportunity of a large low-grade gold target at its El Chacay concession, which is contiguous with the Santa Gracia concession and features swarms of gold seams that have been exploited for gold by small-scale artisanal miners. The artisanal miners only selected the high grade narrow vein systems, whereas Southern Hemisphere is targeting the opportunity to define a bulk low-grade gold resource.

The Chitigua project is located on the highly prospective western fault, north of the El Abra mine and south of the Quebrada Blanca Mine. This metallogenic zone includes the Chuquicamata and Escondida mines. 

New drilling programs have commenced at the Santa Gracia and Chitigua copper projects, and the Company has received results from trenching at its El Chacay gold project and further results from its drilling program at El Arrayan.

EL ARRAYAN COPPER PROJECT

The Company previously reported results from the first six holes drilled at El Arrayan. Four of these holes intersected copper oxides within an andesite host rock that overlies a diorite intrusive.

A further four holes have been drilled as part of this scout drilling program. Of these, the two holes that were in the same andesitic host reported intercepts of copper oxides, while the remaining two holes, which tested the underlying dacite intrusive, returned negative results.

Mineralisation

The El Arrayan style of mineralisation resembles Andacollo with a diorite intrusive being the source of mineralisation, although a large percentage of the mineralised zone is in the adjacent andesitic wall rocks, with propilitic alteration (chlorite, epidote, calcite, specularite), sericitic alteration, and combinations of both types.

The El Arrayan mineralization consists of copper oxides, and minor chalcopyrite with pyrite and magnetite. A preliminary geological interpretation shows that the mineralisation could be a mixture of veins and mantles associated with porphyrytic diorite intruding volcanic-subvolcanic sequences of fine grain andesite with minor microdiorites.

This mineralization could represent the medium – distal part of a hydrothermal system, probably associated with a copper-gold porphyry target similar to the Andacollo porphyry copper system. 

Analysis

Sample preparation and analysis was conducted on 4 to 5kg drill samples by Andes Analytical Assay Ltda Chile ("Andes") using Atomic Absorption Spectrometry methods. Andes is an independent full service commercial laboratory accredited under ISO 9001:2008.

Samples were taken for each selected metre of depth using a standard sample splitting system. From the results to date, six of the ten scout holes intercepted mineralised zones with hole No. EA 002 showing the best results.

The remaining four drill holes were found to fall outside the mineralised zone or within the diorite intrusive.

A schedule of the 4 holes in this program is provided below:

EL CHACAY GOLD PROJECT

The El Chacay project covers an area of 88 sq kms and is contiguous with the Santa Gracia concessions. The project is located 30km from the city of La Serena.

Extensive near-surface artisanal mining activities have been undertaken in the area with selective exploitation of high-grade veins. The Company is testing the opportunity for a large tonnage, low grade gold resource in this area.

Two near-surface trenches have been excavated using a bulldozer and channel samples extracted over the entire lengths of these trenches.

The second trench returned the most encouraging results with the whole trench having a cross strike distance of 36.4 m averaging a grade of 0.33g/t.

See attached Table 1 for complete trenching program results.

SANTA GRACIA COPPER PROJECT

The Santa Gracia project covers a concession area of 35 sq kms and is part of the central cluster of concessions close to the city of La Serena.

The Santa Gracia concession covers two artisanal mines, La Cuyana and San Sebastian, which exploited a copper porphyry. A drilling program comprising 12 holes has commenced to test the further extent of this porphyry occurrence.

CHITIGUA COPPER PROJECT

The Chitigua concession covers an area of 202 sq kms and is located 90 km north of Calama and approximately 25km north of the El Abra mine. Access is via the city of Calama that services Codelco's Chuquicamata, RT, MM and Gaby mines and the EL Abra mine.

The Company has completed a 420m Diamond drill hole and awaits the analysis results. Also, a RC drill program on this project has commenced. The drill target covers a strike length of 10km that has been mapped along a contact between a tertiary diorite intrusive and an earlier granitic batholith.

Extensive copper mineralisation occurs along this contact and one area that will be tested is a biotite breccia zone that shows extensive copper oxide mineralisation on surface.

Competent Person's Statement

The details contained in this report pertain to information compiled by Mr. Trevor Tennant, a full time employee of the Company and who is a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr Tennant has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the December 2004 Edition of the "Australian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves". Mr Tennant consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on this information in the form and context in which it appears.