VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwire) -- 01/14/13 -- Lara Exploration Ltd. ("Lara" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:LRA) is pleased to report that it has signed a Definitive Agreement ("the Agreement") with Focus Graphite Inc. ("Focus"), whereby Focus can earn up to a 60% interest in Lara's Caninde Graphite Project ("the Project") in Ceara State, northeast Brazil.

Focus can earn an initial 51% interest in the Project by spending $2.5 million on exploration (including a minimum of 2,000 metres of drilling) and issuing 500,000 common shares to Lara by December 14, 2015 (100,000 issued at signing). Focus can then elect to earn an additional 9% (for a total of 60%) in the Project by investing a further $4.5 million on exploration (including a minimum of 5,000 metres of drilling and delivering a Preliminary Economic Assessment (as defined under National Instrument 43-101) within two years.

Caninde Graphite Project comprises 15,614 hectares of exploration licenses accessible on paved highways from the Ceara State Capital, Fortaleza. Reconnaissance work by Lara has identified a number of anomalous weathered bedrock outcrops with massive flake graphite bodies up to approximately 10 meters wide, associated with wider zones of lower-grade disseminated graphite flake occurrences along a 16 kilometre long, north-northwest trending zone within the property (see Company news releases of December 05, 2011 and April 11, 2012).

Quality Control

Michael Bennell, Lara's Vice President Exploration and a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects and has approved the technical disclosure in this release and has verified the data disclosed.

About Lara

Lara is a South American-focused exploration company following the Prospect Generator business model, which aims to minimize shareholder dilution and financial risk by generating prospects and then exploring them in joint ventures funded by partners. The Company currently holds a diverse portfolio of prospects and deposits, mostly funded through fifteen Joint Ventures and three Strategic Alliances. Lara's common shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "LRA".

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.