Focus Delivers Pre-Feasibility Update for Bayovar 12 Phosphate Project, Peru After-Tax NPV $458M • IRR 26.4% • Payback 3.9 Years • Mine Life 20 Years

May 16, 2016. Vancouver, BC Focus Ventures Ltd. (TSX-V. FCV; "FCV" or the "Company") is pleased to announce results for its National Instrument 43-101 Updated Pre-Feasibility Study ("Updated PFS") for its 70%-owned Bayovar 12 phos phate project in northern Peru. The Updated PFS was prepared by M 3 Engineering & Technology Corp. ("M3") and Independent Mining Consultants Inc. ("IMC"), both based in Tucson, Arizona and is a change-in-scope study that replaces an earlier M3 Pre-Feasibility Study ("PFS") dated February 8, 2016. Key changes- in-scope include:

• one large processing plant instead of the staged commissioning of two smaller ones

• owner-operated instead of contractor-operated overburden stripping

• doubling of pre-production overburden stripping

• a simplified mine plan and production schedule

• larger and more efficient loading and hauling equipment

• a more logical and staged buildout of the tailings storage facility

These changes-in-scope increased capital cost, decreased operating cost and in turn significantly improved the financial performance of the project.

Simon Ridgway, Chairman and CEO of Focus, said, "In sedimentary phosphate deposits there are no starter pits. As a r esult, payback of capital is dependent upon achieving name plate process plant capacity and low operating costs early in the mine's life. With payback in 3.9 years and an after-tax NPV7.5 $458 million, the Updated PFS clearly demonstrates that large- scale open pit development at Bayovar 12 has the potential to deliver impressive cash margins over an initial 20 year mine life. It is Focus' goal to become the long-term supplier of choice for the direct application fertilizer market."‌‌

Except where otherwise noted, all currency amounts are stated in Q1-2016 United States dollars. All production volumes are stated on a 100% basis and all mined tonnages are stated on a dry basis. The Company will file the Updated PFS with Canadian securities regulators within 45 days of this release. It will be available at SEDAR and also on the Company's website.

The Company will host a Conference Call and Webcast on Tuesday, May 17, 2016 at 8am Pacific Time (11am Eastern, 4pm UK) to discuss the Updated PFS. Call-in details can be found at the end of this release.

Table I Life-of-Mine Highlights and Comparison with PFS

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The Bayovar 12 project is a conventional truck-loader open pit mine and a process plant that is designed to produce 24% and 28% P2O5 direct application phosphate rock fertilizer ("DAPR") "products". Phosphate ore will be mined at a rate of 8,000 tonnes per day from 13 overburden- covered and laterally-continuous sedimentary phosphate beds, interlayered with diatomite waste or "interburden". Overburden, interburden and phosphate ore are free-digging and do not require drilling or blasting. Ongoing back-filling of the open pit is an integral part of a mine plan that is designed for progressive closure. The average Waste/Ore ("W/O") ratio is 7.2/1.

The beneficiation process is simple and chemical-free using sea-water washing, scrubbing and de-sliming. Solid tailings and waste water will be stored in an adjacent tailings-evaporation pond ("TSF"). Fertilizer product will be trucked 40 km to a dedicated seaborne loading facility.

Figure 1 General Arrangement Drawing

The project is in an established phosphate mining district. At full capacity it will produce 1 million tonnes of fertilizer product per year over an initial mine life of 20 years and will supply a rapidly-growing market for natural and plant-ready DAPR products.

MINERAL RESOURCE AND RESERVE ESTIMATES

A systematic and wide-spaced 62-hole, 5,971m Diamond drilling program delineated a continuous 34 km2 near-surface diatomite sequence containing 13 flat-lying sedimentary phosphate beds. These beds are open to extension over the remaining 91 km2 of the concession.

In order to support the PFS Mineral Resource Estimate, IMC completed a review of the geology and resource block models. IMC then developed an independent Reserve Estimate through the construction of a 20-year open pit shell contained within the Mineral Resource model and based on DAPR prices of $145/t and $185/t for 24% and 28% P2O5 products, respectively. The reader is cautioned that Mineral Resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. In addition, the reader is reminded that the reported Mineral Resource is inclusive of the open pit-constrained Mineral Reserve.

Table II Bayovar 12 Mineral Resources and Reserves Estimates (Dry Tonnes)

* Minimum thickness, grade cut-off and other mining parameters were not applied. Resource Estimation includes 16 phosphate beds. Reserve Estimation considers the uppermost 13 phosphate beds.

MINING SCHEDULE

The Bayovar 12 phos phate deposit is ideally suited for large-scale open pit development. It consists of a 40m thick, laterally continuous and near-surface mineralized zone overlain by 30m of overburden. All volumes in the open pit are free-digging; drilling and blasting are not required.

The planned open pit shape is that of a progressively larger hand-fan and is divided into 13 mining phases. Each phase has multiple working faces in order to efficiently sequence overburden stripping, ore and interburden mining to ensure regular delivery of ore to the process plant. Haulage profiles and cycle times were optimized for each of the 13 mining phases. Waste volumes account for 89% of mine production tonnes. By continuously placing waste as backfill

in mined-out phases of the open pit, haulage distances are minimized and the ex-open pit waste storage footprint is reduced. Excluding backfill, the open pit at its deepest point will be 76m below surface.

Figure 2 Isometric Open Pit Arrangement Year 7

The open pit will feed the process plant at a nominal rate of 8,000 tonnes per day or 2.7 million tonnes per year. An accelerated program of pre-production and Year 1 waste stripping, totaling

46.8 million tonnes, is designed to maintain a balanced Life-of-Mine ("LOM") W/O ratio at 7.2/1. Low specific gravity of the mined volumes allows for the use of over-sized loading and hauling equipment of the kind often used in coal mining. Overburden and thicker interburden beds will be mined with 31 m 3 front-end loaders and loaded into 110 m 3 capacity haul trucks. Individual phosphate beds and thin interburden layers will be mined with GPS-controlled continuous surface miners. Over the initial 20 year mine life the open pit will deliver 58.8 million tonnes of ore to the process plant and 424 million tonnes of waste, of which 111 million tonnes will be placed in surface storage, 308 million tonnes as in-pit backfill and 5 million tonnes as construction material for the TSF embankments.

ORE PROCESSING

The process plant, operating at 85% of nominal capacity and without the use of chemical additives, will process on an annual basis 2.7 million tonnes of ore and produce 1 million tonnes of natural DAPR fertilizer products. The beneficiation process is simple and consists of drum washing with seawater and recycled process water, size classification, attrition scrubbing, hydraulic classification, filtering and rotary drying. By adjusting the cut point for fines in the tertiary classifying hydrosizer, the process plant is designed to produce, on a batch basis, either a 24% or a 28% P2O5 product. Phosphate recoveries are forecast at 81.1% and 72.3% for each product, respectively. Infrastructure required for the process plant includes a 16 km - 138 kV transmission line and a 45 km - 32" seawater supply pipeline.

Figure 3 Open Pit Annual Production Schedule

Figure 4 Ore Processing Flow Sheet - Annual Tonnages

CAPITAL COST ESTIMATE

The Capital Cost to design, permit, pre-strip, construct and commission the open pit mine, process plant and ancillary facilities and utilities is estimated at $167.7 million. Some 90% of total equipment costs were derived from vendor quotes. Working capital of $40 million is estimated separately and carried in the financial analysis.