VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - May 30, 2013) - Southern Arc Minerals (News - Market indicators)(OTCQX:SOACF) ("Southern Arc" or "the Company") is pleased to report further encouraging drilling results from the Tibu Serai and Bising targets at the Mencanggah prospect on Southern Arc's West Lombok property.

The Company recently completed 12 diamond drill holes (1,696 metres) on the West Lombok property - three at Bising target and nine at Tibu Serai. The results continue to demonstrate the consistency of the wide mineralized body along the 500-metre strike one of the Bising Hill target, and highlight the potential of higher-grade zones within numerous silica ledge bodies mapped at Tibu Serai and other localities throughout the property.

Southern Arc has now provided SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. ("SRK") with all drilling and exploration data collected to date from the West Lombok project, with the objective of completing a National Instrument 43-101 compliant resource estimate by mid-2013. The report is expected to provide an inferred resource estimate for the property incorporating epithermal-gold mineralization from parts of the Raja target (Pelangan prospect), Bising and Tibu Serai targets (Mencanggah prospect), as well as porphyry copper-gold mineralization from the Selodong prospect. The report will also include SRK's recommendations for additional drilling for both resource upgrade and expansion, which will help to focus next steps for the project.

"We have seen consistently strong drill results at the West Lombok property, and look forward to the results of the SRK report," said John Proust, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Southern Arc. "With West Lombok successfully advanced to this stage, Southern Arc may consider bringing a partner to the project to accelerate West Lombok's advancement while reducing financial exposure and risk to Southern Arc's shareholders.

"Southern Arc's treasury is one of its key assets in what is undeniably a difficult capital market. While our share price has followed the general downward trend of most resource companies, having current working capital of approximately $14 million puts Southern Arc in a unique position among our peers and provides the financial flexibility to consider new opportunities that can bring near-term value to our shareholders. As announced in December, Southern Arc is implementing a diversification strategy and actively pursuing advanced-stage gold projects in new jurisdictions. We look forward to reporting progress on a number of fronts to our shareholders in the near term."

The nine Tibu Serai holes (1,273.0 metres, Table 1, Figure 1) extended the known dip and strike extent of the mineralization previously reported in MCG055 (24.8 m @ 4.27 g/t gold and 0.6 g/t silver, including 5.4 m @ 9.44 g/t gold and 1.3 g/t silver, Southern Arc news release dated March 25, 2013). Eight of these holes intersected significant mineralization within a 220-metre strike length centred on MCG055. Two holes drilled 40 m northwest and southeast of MCG055 confirmed continuity of high gold grades along an 80-m strike length at similar elevations. MCG058, located 40 m northwest, intersected 6.90 m @ 5.65 g/t gold, while MCG060, located 40 m southeast of MCG055, intersected 5.10 m @ 5.29 g/t.

MCG061 intersected mineralization 60 m vertically below MCG055 (26.30 m @ 1.22 g/t gold including 8.00 m @ 3.21 g/t gold), indicating continuity of mineralization at depth. MCG067, located approximately 120 southeast of MCG055, intersected high-grade mineralization (4.50 m @ 7.79 g/t gold) within a second shoot zone that remains open to the southeast.

Drilling has also intersected a parallel vein zone exposed 200 m to the southeast of MCG067 (Figure 1). A narrow high-grade intersection in MCG058 (0.70 m @ 13.50 g/t gold and 2.3 g/t silver) well above the targeted mineralization is interpreted to represent the strike extension of this parallel vein zone.

These results support the contiguous nature of high-grade mineralization along just one of the mineralized structures at Mencanggah and highlight exploration potential in the numerous high-grade surface indications of epithermal gold mineralization that remain to be drill tested at both Mencanggah and Pelangan.

Bising Target

Three Bising holes infilled a 200-m gap zone in previous drilling between MCG031 and MCG032 (Table 2, Figure 2) and confirmed the continuous and very wide nature of the moderately dipping mineralized body at the Bising hill along a 500-m strike zone. Particularly encouraging is the result from MCG057, which confirmed continuity between other wide > 1 g/t gold intervals intersected to the west (MCG030, 041, 042, 028) and east (MCG032) of this location (Figure 2).

Porphyry Copper-Gold Exploration Drilling

Southern Arc also recently completed two drill holes to test porphyry copper-gold mineralization on the property. MCD001 and MCD002 (1,197.7 metres, Table 3, Figure 3) tested two deep porphyry targets beneath the Mencanggah lithocap. These holes were targeting modeled magnetic geophysical anomalies underlying the Tibu Serai area. Neither hole encountered significant porphyry-style mineralization, instead intersecting magnetite rich diorite and volcanics, respectively.

Southern Arc remains very optimistic about porphyry copper exploration on the property. Areas in the Selodong prospect where previous drilling encountered gold-rich high-grade porphyry drill intersections have similar geophysical signatures to other porphyry targets on the property. Porphyry deposits often occur in clusters, and numerous porphyry targets remain to be drill tested beneath the lithocaps at Mencanggah, Pelangan and Selodong.

To view Tables 1, 2 and 3, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/sa530t.pdf

To view Figures 1, 2 and 3, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/sa530f.pdf

On behalf of the Board of Southern Arc Minerals Inc.

John Proust, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

About Southern Arc

Southern Arc Minerals Inc. is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on gold and copper-gold exploration. The Company's key exploration property is its West Lombok project, with several gold-rich copper porphyry and epithermal gold vein prospects. Southern Arc is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol SA and on the OTCQX International under the symbol SOACF. More information is available at www.southernarcminerals.com or by emailing info@southernarcminerals.com.

Qualified Person

The technical information in this document has been reviewed by Southern Arc's Executive Vice President, Andrew Rowe, B. App. Sc. Geology, MAusIMM. Mr. Rowe has over 20 years of international mineral exploration experience throughout Southeast and Central Asia and Australia. During this time he has held such positions as Principal Geologist - Feasibility Studies, Senior Geologist and Consulting Geologist. The technical information in this document has also been reviewed by Southern Arc's President & Chief Operating Officer, Dr. Mike Andrews, PhD, FAusIMM, who has sufficient experience relevant to the style of mineralization under consideration and qualifies as a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

The drill program and sampling protocol is managed by Southern Arc under the supervision of Andrew Rowe. The diamond drill holes are drilled at PQ, HQ and NQ sizes depending on hole depth and core recovery to date has averaged better than 98.0%. Half core is cut by rock saw and is generally sampled using nominal 1-metre intervals; however, sample intervals are varied according to geological contacts and have ranged between 0.2 to 2.5 metres in length. Three quality control samples (one blank and two standards) are inserted into each batch of 40 samples. The half core samples are securely transported from the project site to the Intertek Testing Services ("ITS") sample preparation laboratory in Sumbawa Besar via private truck hired by Southern Arc. Sample pulps are then sent to the ITS Jakarta laboratory by ITS. Gold is analysed by fire assay with AAS finish and a four-acid digestion with ICP-MS finish is used to analyse a full suite of elements including silver and base metals. 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 for sample tracking, quality control and reporting.

Forward-looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements relating to expected or anticipated future events and operations, timing of projects and anticipated results that are forward-looking in nature and, as a result, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, such as general economic, market and business conditions, the regulatory process and actions, the need to obtain permits, the need to work with local communities and authorities to advance the properties, technical issues, new legislation, competitive and general economic factors and conditions, the uncertainties resulting from potential delays or changes in plans, the occurrence of unexpected events, and the Company's ability to execute and implement future plans. Actual results achieved may vary from the information provided herein as a result of numerous known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors, including uncertainty related to drill results and the inclusion of drill results in future resource estimates for the property. There is no representation by the Company that actual results achieved during the forecast period will be the same in whole or in part as that forecast.