Focus Ventures Provides Drill Update, Arranges Private Placement

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Mar 11, 2014) - Focus Ventures Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:FCV): Mr. David Cass, the President of Focus Ventures, is pleased to provide an update on the Company's diamond drill program at the Bayovar 12 mining concession, Peru. Bayovar 12 shows potential to host a large sedimentary phosphate deposit, and is close to the operating Bayovar phosphate mine, owned by Vale, Mosaic and Mitsui. Focus's Peruvian subsidiary, Agrifos Peru S.A.C., can earn 70-per-cent of the issued share capital of JPQ, the owners of the Bayovar 12 concession, by investing in exploration and making a series of cash payments up to the completion of a positive prefeasibility study, after which it will have the first right of refusal to purchase the remaining 30 per cent of JPQ.

On March 3, 2014, Focus announced that the first phase of drilling had commenced at Bayovar 12. The holes are being drilled vertically on a 800m by 800m grid within the western half of the 12,575-hectare concession to target phosphate beds within the Diana Formation, a sequence of horizontally bedded diatomites and sandstones about 40 metres thick.

The drill program is progressing well, with several holes already completed and core recoveries averaging close to 100%. Preliminary core logging has confirmed the presence of multiple pelletal phosphate beds typically associated with fossiliferous diatomite over the ±40m Diana Formation interval.

The geology appears remarkably consistent hole to hole and the beds are almost completely horizontal. All of the holes completed to date have finished at a depth of around 105m in a loose sand unit which marks the bottom of the formation.

Management hopes that drilling at Bayovar 12 will lead to an initial National Instrument 43-101-compliant resource calculation. The conceptual geological target size is between 100 million tonnes to 150 million tonnes of phosphate rock grading between 12 per cent phosphorus pentoxide to 18 per cent phosphorus pentoxide -- roughly in line with the other known deposits in the Bayovar district. (The reader is cautioned that the potential quantity and grade are conceptual in nature, and there has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource. It is uncertain if further exploration will result in the target being delineated as a mineral resource. The calculation is based on the presence of at least six phosphate beds, each averaging 0.75-metre width, with a specific gravity of roughly 1.7, over an area of approximately 14 square kilometres.)

Focus Arranges $1.1m Private Placement

Focus Ventures has arranged, subject to stock exchange approval, a non-brokered private placement financing of up to 5 million units at 22 cents per unit, for proceeds of up to $1.1-million. Each unit will consist of one common share and one half of a warrant, each full warrant entitling the holder to purchase one additional common share of the Company at 25 cents for one year from closing.

A finder's fee may be paid on a portion of the placement. The finder's fee will consist of 7 per cent cash or units and 7 per cent warrants, each such warrant entitling the finder to purchase one common share of the Company at a price of 25 cents for one year.

The proceeds of the financing will be used for continued exploration of the Company's Bayovar 12 phosphate project in Peru, and for general working capital purposes.

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical information in this release were prepared under the supervision of 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 National Instrument 43-101.

About Focus

Phosphate rock is a raw material for fertilizers and vital to world food production. Focus is acquiring and developing quality phosphate projects in Latin America where the discovery and development of new deposits is becoming increasingly important given the growing demand and limited local supply of phosphate for fertilizer production. For further information, please call 604-630-5544 or visit our web site www.focusventuresltd.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Ralph Rushton, Director

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 contains 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.