VANCOUVER, Jan. 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ – Focus Ventures Ltd. (TSX-V: FCV) is pleased to provide its shareholders with an update on exploration at its Santa Cruz silver project in Mexico. Focus controls a district-scale land position covering a number of silver discoveries made since late 2011 and is currently preparing for a drill program.

New mineralization was sampled at Colorin and La Plomosa, located 400m east of the Estrella mine in the El Reventon property area. At Colorin, channel sampling of hydrothermal breccias gave 12m @ 176 g/t Ag, 0.2 g/t Au, 3.1% Pb and 0.8% Zn. Sampling at La Plomosa returned 6m @ 78 g/t Ag, 0.38 g/t Au. These are additional breccia structures to those mapped at the Estrella Mine and El Taco, where previous sampling gave intervals of 5.6m @ 687 g/t Ag, 0.2 g/t Au, 2.6% Pb, 1.3% Zn and 8.9m @ 165 g/t Ag, 0.32 g/t Au, respectively.

At least five mineralized structures have now been discovered in the Estrella area over an area of roughly 700m long x 250m wide. Given their northerly dipping nature and spacing, management believes that it will be possible to test several zones within individual drill holes.

Trenching in the Camino Real area, 1.4 km northeast of the Reventon Breccia, identified low-grade oxide gold and silver mineralization that assayed 28m @ 0.88 g/t Au and 14 g/t Ag with gold values ranging from 0.1 to 4.93 g/t Au (median value 0.62 g/t). The mineralization is hosted within a tuffaceous dacite that outcrops on a northeast trending ridge for approximately 1km. Previous sampling returned 2m @ 2.35 g/t Au and 29 g/t Ag 100m to the southwest. Further work is planned.

Surface trenching and sampling has now defined five targets for drill testing, not including recent discoveries at Camino Real and La Bellota where trenching by Focus assayed 98.3 g/t Ag over 24m (see FCV news release dated October 26, 2012.)

Drill Targets to Date

• La Fragua Trend – disseminated and high-grade silver-gold-zinc target along a 1,800m trend defined by surface and underground sampling and 4 widely spaced historic drillholes with intercepts including 34m @ 55.1 g/t Ag, 58m @ 42.9 g/t Ag, and 20m @ 77.7 g/t Ag, 0.27 g/t Au, 1.3% Zn


• Don Blas  – disseminated silver associated with diatreme breccia, 22m section averaged 377.8 g/t Ag & 16.3m @ 63 g/t Ag, with individual assays ranging from 14.1 g/t Ag to 2,350 g/t Ag over 2m


• El Padre – high grade breccia vein and adjacent structures traced for +900m, underground sampling includes 643 g/t Ag over 2.35m, 400 g/t Ag + 1 g/t Au over 0.9m. Additional structures identified in surface sampling


• La Estrella and Chicle areas  – underground and surface sampling includes 5.6m @ 687 g/t Ag, 0.2 g/t Au, 2.6% Pb, 1.3% Zn, and 8.9m @ 165 g/t Ag, 0.32 g/t Au


• Reventon Breccia – previous drilling in 2007 and 2008 by International Northair Mines Ltd. cut breccia-hosted silver, zinc and lead in the majority of holes including 155.4m @ 71.3 g/t Ag, 0.46% Pb and 0.61% Zn, and 22.9m @ 287 g/t Ag, 1.39% Pb and 3.48 % Zn

Drill Program

Focus is undertaking permitting for a drill program planned for Q1 2013. Several individual permit applications are being solicited with the Mexican authorities due to the size of the mineral trend and the number of targets to be drilled. The Company anticipates that the first permits for the Don Blas and La Fragua targets will be received in February, when drilling can commence.

Corporate Update

The Company is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Carlos Pacheco as General Manager for Mexico. Mr. Pacheco has over 25 years’ experience in Mexican exploration and mining, and has worked for both major and junior mining firms over his career, including Echo Bay, IMMSA and Minefinders. Mr. Pacheco has extensive experience in Mexican silver and gold deposits, in particular the Sierra Madre and Faja de Plata mineral trends in northern Mexico, where he was recently involved in the exploration and development of several bulk mineable silver deposits. In addition to his technical capabilities, he has considerable experience in company administration, permitting and community relations. He will be responsible for all aspects of the Company’s activities in Mexico including the Santa Cruz Project and the upcoming drill program, as well as new project evaluations and acquisitions.

Background

The Santa Cruz and El Reventon properties lie within the Silver Lake Trend, a polymetallic belt that hosts several operating and past producing gold and silver mines, including the La Ciénega, Topia, San Dimas and Metates deposits. Focus controls a major district-scale land position comprising over 60,000 hectares covering a mineralized trend over 20km long. Since late 2011 exploration by Focus has resulted in the definition of several breccia-hosted silver and gold targets within the trend that show potential to host bulk-tonnage high-grade and low-grade deposits, with permitting for drilling currently underway.  Exploration is continuing at Reventon with remaining soil anomalies being followed up and trenched. Plans, maps and photos are available on the company website www.focusventuresltd.com.

Sampling Quality Analysis and Quality Control

Rock samples were prepared at ALS Chemex’s preparation facility in Zacatecas and analyzed in Vancouver, Canada.  Silver was determined by multi-acid digestion and ICP-AES, with fire assay gravimetric finish. Gold was assayed by Atomic Adsorption Spectrometry with fire assay gravimetric finish.  Lead and zinc were determined by ICP with Atomic Absorption with volumetric finish.  ALS Chemex’s quality control system complies with International Standards ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 17025:2005.  Analytical accuracy and precision are monitored by the analysis of reagent blanks, reference material and replicate samples.  Quality control is further assured by Focus’s own QA/QC program which involves the insertion by Focus personnel of blind certified standards and blanks into the sample stream at regular intervals in order to independently assess analytical precision and accuracy of each batch of samples as they are received from the laboratory.

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical information in this release was prepared under the supervision of Mr. David Cass , Focus’s President, who is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia, and a “Qualified Person” in accordance with NI 43-101.

About Focus Ventures

Focus Ventures is developing a diversified portfolio of quality silver, gold, copper and phosphate properties in Peru and Mexico.  Backed by an experienced technical team of geologists and consultants, Focus’s strategy is to identify and acquire former producing mines or untested gold and silver and base metal properties that show potential to become new mines.  For further information, please call 604-688-5288 or visit our web site www.focusventuresltd.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

“David Cass”
David Cass , President

Symbol: TSXV-FCV
Shares Issued: 40.1-million

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statement
Some of the statements in this news release contain forward-looking information that involves inherent risk and uncertainty affecting the business of Focus Ventures Ltd.  Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statement.