Southern Empire Appoints Ted Kavanagh to the Board of Directors

10th June 2021

Southern Empire Resources Corp. (“Southern Empire”; TSX-V: SMP) announces the appointment of P.E. (Ted) Kavanagh to the board of directors and the resignation of Latika Prasad as a director.

“We would like to thank Latika for her help and guidance in the formative stages of Southern Empire and we wish her all the best in her future endeavours” stated Southern Empire’s Chairman Ron Netolitzky.

Southern Empire’s CEO, Dale Wallster stated: “As Southern Empire continues to explore, develop and expand its exposure in southern North America, the addition of global mine financing and mergers and acquisitions experience has moved to the forefront of our governance needs. With the appointment of Ted Kavanagh, Southern Empire adds over forty years of significant exploration and mine finance experience. This is a meaningful step forward in our drive to be a leading exploration and development company.”

Mr. Kavanagh is an accomplished executive who most recently was Director of Metals & Mining Finance, Americas for Société Générale where he originated and executed corporate and project finance facilities, marketed metals and foreign exchange hedging and trading lines, and provided related advisory services. From 1991 until joining Société Générale in 2013, he acted in a similar capacity for a series of banks including Standard Americas, Inc. (Standard Bank), HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc., Republic National Bank of New York and Mase Westpac Inc.

Prior to 1991, Ted held senior geological and business development positions with companies including FMC Gold Company, Meridian Minerals Corporation and Denison Mines (US) Inc.

Ted holds a Master’s degree in Geology from Dartmouth College where his thesis explored the origin of copper mineralization at the Carr Fork deposit, last mined by Kennecott Copper Corporation, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto plc, as part of their Bingham Canyon operations in Utah. He is also a graduate of Western University where he completed his Honours Bachelor of Science thesis on porphyry copper-type mineralization in the Chibougamau Complex, Quebec.

Southern Empire also announces that it has granted an aggregate of 400,000 incentive stock options (the “Options”), having an exercise price of $0.30 per share.  The Options can be exercised for a period of five years from the date of grant and are subject to the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange.

About Southern Empire Resources Corp.

Southern Empire is focused on the acquisition, exploration and development of metals and minerals deposits in North America.

In the Cargo Muchacho mountains of Imperial County, California, Southern Empire owns 100 per cent of the historical gold-producing American Girl mine property and holds options to acquire a 100-per-cent interest in the adjacent 2,160-hectare (5,338-acre) Oro Cruz property located approximately 22.5 kilometres (14 miles) southeast of the operating Mesquite gold mine of Equinox Gold Corp.

At Oro Cruz, extensive historical drilling and large-scale open-pit and underground mining of the American Girl, Padre y Madre, Queen and Cross oxide gold deposits by the American Girl Mining Joint Venture (AGMJV; ultimately owned 53 per cent by MK Gold Company and 47 per cent by Hecla Mining Company) occurred between 1987 and 1996. During that time, gold was recovered by either heap leaching of lower-grade, or milling of higher-grade ores until AGMJV operations ceased in late 1996 because of declining gold prices leaving the Oro Cruz property with many gold exploration targets in addition to the historical inferred resource estimate, reported In 2011 by Lincoln Mining Corp., totalling 341,800 ounces gold based on 4,386,000 tonnes averaging 2.2 grams gold per tonne at a cut-off grade of 0.68 g/t Au (4,835,000 tons at 0.07 ounce gold per ton; please refer to the Cautionary Notice Regarding Historical Resource Estimate below).

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Southern Empire Resources Corp.,

Dale Wallster, CEO and Director

For further information on Southern Empire please visit both www.smp.gold and SEDAR or contact: Lubica Keighery, (778) 889-5476, lubica@smp.gold .

NT4