Pacific Iron Ore Corporation Updates Exploration Efforts on the St. Anthony's gold Project.

CALGARY, Jan. 12, 2012 /CNW/ - Pacific Iron Ore Corporation (TSX.V: POC) is pleased to provide an update on the fall 2011 prospecting and trenching program on the St. Anthony gold property. Results for samples have been received and are now complete. The St. Anthony's project has the potential to host gold resources, is located in Ontario and is comprised of 54 mining claims and 14 leases covering 8,784 hectares. The St. Anthony's Gold Project contains the largest past-producing gold mine in the Kenora-Patricia Mining District of Ontario. The original St. Anthony mine is located in the Sturgeon Lake Greenstone Belt and produced 63,310 oz. gold from 332,720 tons with an average recovered grade of 0.191 ounce gold per ton.

Pacific Iron Ore Corporation is actively seeking partners to option the St. Anthony's project to fund further exploration and earn an equity position in the St. Anthony's project.

Successful drill campaigns in 2009 and 2010 focused on the historic St. Anthony mine area but a number of historic occurrences are reported over a much larger area on this large property and were the target of the fall 2011 prospecting program. Many of the showings have not been located since the early 1900's and typically had historic grades reported of 0.5-2.0 opt Au range. The 2011 prospecting and trenching program covered a larger portion of the north end of the property and has located numerous old pits, trenches and shafts, many not previously reported. At least two main mineralized structural corridors have been identified with this program, commonly associated with QFP sills and dykes. Limited trenching demonstrates good continuity to quartz veins over several hundreds of meters of strike in the structural zones. The QFP sills and dykes host mineralization at the St. Anthony mine area and are believed to be regionally significant to gold mineralization.

In 2011, 605 rock samples were collected and of these 152 samples assayed greater than 0.10 g/t Au, with 14 samples assaying greater than 10.0 g/t Au.

A new mineralized structural corridor named the "Lucky Bones Zone" has been traced for 6.0+ km's of strike length with widths of 200-400 meters along the mafic volcanic- Lewis Lake batholith contact, and remains open for testing for an additional 7 km's to the south. Numerous east dipping shear zones are present and contain mineralized volcanic rocks and quartz veins commonly over individual 8-10 meter widths. A large number of historic shafts, trenches and pits were located along this trend. From north to south sampling demonstrates good gold grades comparable to historic values such as the Bucksaw area where sampling and trenching returned values ranging up to 24.1 g/t Au in grab samples. Higher grades are commonly in quartz veins but altered and sulphide bearing mafic volcanic commonly carry high gold values up to 16.2 g/t Au and enhance the target size and continuity. Limited trenching in the Bucksaw area returned channel samples averaging 4.80 g/t Au over 4.0 m's and 5.67 g/t Au over 3.0 m's. The Bucksaw trend was clearly traced into the Dawson White area a further 1.4 km's to the south. A small prospecting program conducted by Emeraldfields (the predecessor company to Pacific Iron Ore) had returned some high grade gold values from a number of showings in 2005 including: 399.39 g/t Au from the Dawson White area and 380.72 g/t Au from the Camp vein. Prospecting in 2011 located a number of historic trenches an additional 400-600 meters south of the Dawson White with gold grades up to 12.95 g/t Au in grab samples. This corridor is somewhat unusual containing significant amounts of silver and copper associated with gold mineralization with values up to 149 g/t Ag and routinely 0.5-1.0% Cu. Prospecting uncovered additional pits in shear zones a further 2.5 km's south of Dawson White which returned gold values up to 19.6 g/t Au in grab samples from an undocumented occurrence.

The main mineralized structural corridor containing the St. Anthony Mine area is called the "Couture Zone" and in 2011 was intermittently prospected along Couture Lake, which limits exposure. This series of north-northeast striking shear zones was prospected along a 10.0 km strike length and has a total width of close to 1.0 km. An abundance of altered and mineralized QFP sills and dykes similar to St. Anthony occur within this structural zone and have not been previously documented.

Several islands 1.0-2.0 km's NE of St. Anthony contain numerous old workings on several structural zones. These zones returned a number of gold values including 58.1g/t Au and 73.7 g/t Au in grab samples. A further 4.0 km's northeast grab sampling returned values up to 6.6 g/t Au in the North Couture Lake showing area. The presence of widespread high gold values over large areas of the property demonstrates the un-tested gold potential of the project, which will require additional detailed work.

Corporate Direction and Strategy

Pacific Iron Ore Corporation is dedicated to the development of its strategic mineral deposits, located in the Port Renfrew area (iron resources) of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, as well as, in the Kenora area (gold resources) of Ontario. With the success of the previous exploration and the existence of sufficient capital resources to undertake additional exploration activities in 2010, the Corporation is well-positioned to continue its exploration efforts.

The St. Anthony's project is a highly prospective past-producing gold mine with the potential to become a significant gold resource through exploration efforts.  Pacific Iron Ore Corporation remains committed to moving the St. Anthony's project forward. Pacific Iron Ore Corporation is actively seeking partners to option and explore the St. Anthony project area, with the objective of outlining gold resources.

Quality Control of Reported Results

Mr. Graeme Evans, P. Geo of Kamloops, British Columbia, an independent geological consultant, is the Qualified Person on the St. Anthony's Project under the guidelines of NI 43-101. Mr. Evans has reviewed and approved the technical disclosure contained in this press release relating to that project.

The rock samples were provided to ALS Chemex, an ISO 9001 and ISO 17025 accredited facility located in North Vancouver, British Columbia, for analysis and processing. The samples taken were analyzed for 33 elements by induction coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and for gold by ore grade fire assay on a 50 g sample with atomic absorption spectroscopy (AA) finish.

Forward Looking Statements:
The TSX.V Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address future production, reserves potential, exploration drilling, exploration activities and events or developments that the Corporation expects are forward looking statements. Although the Corporation believes the expectations expressed in such forward looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward looking statements. Factors that could cause results to differ materially from those in the forward looking statements include, but are not limited to: market prices; exploitation and exploration successes; continued availability of capital, financing and personnel; government regulation and laws; the Corporations relationship with First Nations; environmental developments; and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that such statements are not guarantees of future performance and those actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward looking statements. For more information on Pacific Iron Ore Corporation, Investors should review the Corporation's registered filings which are available at www.sedar.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provide (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For further information please refer to the Corporation's profile on SEDAR which can be accessed at www.sedar.com, visit our website at www.pacificironorecorp.com or contact:

Todd Montgomery, Chief Executive Officer Telephone: [phone] Facsimile: [phone]

Jeffery Austin, President Telephone: [phone] Facsimile: [phone]

Leonard Cornez, Chief Financial Officer  Telephone: [phone] or 1-866-682-5812 Facsimile: [phone]