Atacama Pacific Expands Cerro Maricunga Property

TORONTO, CANADA--(Marketwire - Oct. 13, 2011) - Atacama Pacific Gold Corporation (TSX VENTURE:ATM) ("Atacama Pacific") reports that it has entered into an option agreement to acquire the Santa Teresa gold property which lies within the boundaries of Atacama Pacific's Cerro Maricunga Gold Project. Further, Atacama Pacific has also made application for additional concessions expanding its Cerro Maricunga property to the northwest. The Cerro Maricunga property, which is located 140 road kilometres east of Copiapo, Chile, now encompasses 15,840 hectares (see figure 1).

The Santa Teresa gold property covers a series of dacitic and andesitic stocks intruding volcanic and sedimentary rocks similar to those formations and lithologies which host Kinross Gold's La Coipa mine. Preliminary examination of the property by Atacama Pacific identified areas of black banded quartz veining which returned assays from trace to 0.49 grams per tonne gold ("g/t Au") over 2 metres. In addition, a channel sample cut across a 0.30 metre iron carbonate quartz vein returned 4.20 g/t Au. The iron carbonate quartz vein is associated with a major fault cutting a thin veneer of limestone overlying volcanic and sedimentary rocks.

Cominco conducted preliminary exploration on the Santa Teresa property from late 1997 to early 1998, with a program of surface sampling, including minor trenching, and 10 kilometres of geophysics (induced polarization). The geophysical survey, completed on three 400 metre spaced lines, traced a weak to strong, northwesterly trending chargeability anomaly over 800 metres. No drilling has been reported on the property.

As part the upcoming $24 million Phase III exploration campaign targeting the Cerro Maricunga gold deposit, Atacama Pacific will undertake a program of mapping, trenching and sampling at Santa Teresa with the goal of defining targets for drilling during the second quarter of 2012.

The Santa Teresa option agreement comprises total payments of $3,000,000 over a period of three years with $100,000 paid upon signing and total work commitments of $250,000 over the first 12 months. A net smelter royalty of 1.5% is payable to the property vendor upon the commencement of production from the concessions. Atacama Pacific has the option to purchase 50% of the royalty for $1,000,000 during a two year period after the commencement of commercial production.

In addition to the Santa Teresa option, recently Atacama Pacific made application for a series of exploration concessions adjacent to the northwest boundary the Cerro Maricunga property. The new exploration concessions cover Atacama Pacific's access road from Highway 31 to the Cerro Maricunga property.

About Atacama Pacific Gold Corporation

Atacama Pacific's business is the acquisition, exploration and development of precious metals resource properties in Chile. Atacama Pacific's principal mineral property is the Cerro Maricunga oxide-associated, breccia-hosted gold project, located in Region III, 140 kilometres by road northeast of the city of Copiapo. Atacama Pacific's goal is to become a producer of gold through the exploration and development of the Cerro Maricunga Gold Project. Atacama Pacific also has interests in four other mineral properties within close proximity to the Cerro Maricunga Gold Project and a fifth property in Chile's Region I.

National Instrument 43-101 Compliance

Under National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") of the Canadian Securities Administrators, the qualified person for the Cerro Maricunga Gold Project is Michael Easdon, a resident of Santiago, Chile and a Professional Geologist registered with the State of Oregon, USA. Mr. Easdon, an independent qualified person as defined by NI 43-101, has reviewed and verified the contents of this press release.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This release contains forward-looking statements, including predictions, projections and forecasts. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to completion of economic assessments, exploration results, the success of exploration activities generally, mine development prospects, and future gold production Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "planning", "expects" or "does not expect", "continues", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "potential", "anticipates", "does not anticipate", or "belief", or describes a "goal", or variation of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, future events, conditions, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, prediction, projection, forecast, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the results of due diligence activities, the interpretation and actual results of current exploration activities; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; future prices of gold; possible variations in grade or recovery rates; failure of equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing or in the completion of exploration, as well as those factors disclosed in Atacama Pacific's publicly filed documents. Although Atacama Pacific has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

To view the figure associated with this release, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/atm1013.pdf.