Florence Copper to generate $3.3 billion in economic activity in Arizona over operational life

VANCOUVER, Jan. 22, 2014

VANCOUVER, Jan. 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ - Curis Resources Ltd. ("Curis" or the "Company") (TSX:CUV) announces the results of the newly released 2013 supplement to the Arizona State University (ASU) 2012 Economic and Fiscal Benefits Study of Florence Copper Project ("the "2012 Study").  The supplement is based on the updated economic model provided in the detailed Pre-feasibility Study (PFS) of the Florence Copper project published in March 2013, and concludes Florence Copper would generate more than $3.3 billion in new economic activity to the state of Arizona over 30 years. This is an increase from the $2.2 billion from conclusions in the 2012 Study.

"The original ASU Study confirmed that Florence Copper will have a significant impact on the local economies of Florence and Pinal County, as well as a profound contribution to the economic well-being of the State by creating head of household jobs and spending hundreds of millions of dollars in supply and service contracts," said Michael McPhie, President & CEO of Curis Resources Ltd. "We are pleased that the updated study shows Florence Copper will create an even stronger boost to the local and state economies than originally projected, and shows the project can bring widespread benefits for years to come."

This additional economic uplift is described in ASU's Florence Copper Project 2013 Supplement, which indicates that Florence Copper would:

• Generate $2.1 billion in total economic activity in Pinal County alone
• Create and support 796 Arizona jobs and more than 25 years of full production
• Increase personal income in Arizona by $1.98 billion and of that more than $959 million will benefit Pinal County residents
• Create hundreds of new head-of-household jobs in the Town of Florence and Pinal County
• Provide approximately $468 million in taxes and royalties to Arizona governments
• Provide approximately $68.5 million in local tax revenues to the Town of Florence
• Enable Pinal County and Town of Florence combined to collect approximately $102 million in local tax revenues

ASU's prestigious L. William Seidman Research Institute was commissioned by Florence Copper to provide the updated forecast of economic benefits for the project. Top local experts - Dennis Hoffman, Ph.D. and Eva Madly, M.A. - utilized an Arizona-specific 2013 version of REMI, a highly sophisticated and well-respected regional input-output forecasting model, to produce numeric estimates of the benefits on the Arizona economy of economic activity such as Florence Copper in Arizona. The report utilizes data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the State of Arizona, Pinal County and other official sources to compile the study.

Technical details for the re-evaluation by ASU are based on a comprehensive Pre-Feasibility Study of the Florence Copper project completed by M3 Engineering of Tucson, Arizona in March 2013.  A full copy of this report is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Curis website at www.curisresources.com. A significant part of the project evaluation was driven by the results of a large-scale metallurgical test completed at Metcon Research in Tucson, which employed updated testing techniques to simulate in-situ treatment of the copper deposit at the site.

The full report, entitled Economic and Fiscal Benefits of the Florence Copper Project: Supplement to the 2012 Report based on a New Assessment of Copper Recovery is available at www.florencecopper.com/s/EconomicBenefits.asp.