VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- Premium Exploration Inc. (TSX VENTURE:PEM)(OTCQX:PMMEF) ("Premium" or the "Company) is pleased to announce that its aggressive 2011 soil sampling program is well underway at the Company's 100% owned Idaho Gold Project.

Crews have collected 3,500 of the 10,000 soil samples across the unglaciated 172km2 property.

Priority targets include systematic grid sampling over last year's newly identified 18 km Lucky Strike structural target, and a comprehensive first pass throughout the southern portion of the property in the area surrounding the Monday and "X" Zones. A plan map showing the proposed soil sample locations is available here: http://bit.ly/IGP_2011SoilPlan

Gold mineralization at the Idaho Gold Project is associated with regional scale structures. To date:

• Approximately 20% of prospective structural targets have been systematically soil sampled, identifying 16 km of correlating gold-in-soil trends.

• Less than 1.5 km of the 16 km multiple gold-in-soil trends have been drill tested.

• 1.4 km of the sampled structural target hosts an NI 43-101 Indicated gold resource of 343,000 oz in 11.8 Mt averaging 0.90 g/t Au (0.5 g/t Au cut-off) and 879,000 Inferred oz Au in 26.4 Mt averaging 1.04 g/t Au (0.5 g/t Au cut-off).

The first area of focus for the 2011 soil sampling program is the "Lucky Strike Trend"; a consistent 1.0 km x 300 m zone of elevated gold-in-soil peaking at 265 ppb Au located approximately 5.0 km north of the known drill discoveries at the Idaho Gold Project.

The Lucky Strike Zone was discovered at the end of the 2010 season when geophysics revealed an 18 km long, potentially mineralized structure. Upon identifying the structure, Premium managed to sample a 1.0 km segment of the 18 km structure prior to winter conditions and is following up on the positive results.

The Lucky Strike has never been systematically explored, soil sampled, or drilled, and a 3.5 km portion of the 18 km structure was extensively dredged and heavily panned for gold in the late 1800's to early 1990's during the GreatIdaho Gold Rush. Previous operators never identified the source of the mineralized system.

Pending favourable soil results along the 18 km long zone, the Company anticipates drilling the Lucky Strike in Phase-Four.

Lack of glaciation over the Idaho Gold Project has allowed in-situ soil-sampling to be employed as a highly effective, target refining tool. Two of Premium's gold discoveries to date have been found by drilling beneath gold-in-soil anomalies. The 14.5 km of untested soil anomalies along structural targets on the property warrant drill follow-up.

Drill Update

Presently, two diamond drills are located in the Deadwood Zone focusing on exploration and one drill is located in the Friday Zone conducting step-out drilling along strike to the south of the Friday-Petsite resource.

Drill #3 is drilling a structural target identified by geophysics with correlating gold-in-soil near the historic Deadwood deposit located in the central portion of the Deadwood Zone (drill-hole DW2011-4).

Drill #2 is located on the east side of the Deadwood Zone and is drilling a cross-cutting structural target that also hosts the historic Grangeville Mine (drill-hole DW2011-2).

Drill #1 is in the Friday Zone in progress on PFR2011-13, a 550 meter step-out to the south from the Lower Block of the Friday resource. Since the start of Phase-Four, Premium has extended the strike length of the Friday mineralization by 45%. The total strike length of the untested Friday gold-in-soil trend exceeds 3.0 km.

The current resources within 800 meters of the Friday gold-in-soil include 343,000 Indicated oz in 11.8 Mt grading 0.90 g/t Au (0.5 g/t cut-off) and 780,000 Inferred oz in 22.5 Mt grading 1.08 g/t Au (0.5 g/t cut-off).