Silvercorp Reports High-Grade Silver-Lead Drill Results From the SGX Mine

VANCOUVER, BC, July 5, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - Silvercorp Metals Inc. ("Silvercorp" or the "Company") (TSX: SVM) (NYSE American: SVM) is pleased to report high-grade silver-lead intercepts from its ongoing diamond drilling program at the SGX mine in the Ying Mining District, China.  

Highlights (all intersections are in core lengths):

• Hole ZKDBS27E0301 intersected 1,660 grams per tonne ("g/t") silver ("Ag"), 0.21% lead ("Pb"), 0.12% zinc ("Zn") and 1.61% copper ("Cu") over a 0.51 metre ("m") interval of vein S54 at the 849 m elevation;
• Hole ZKDB0S8E101 intersected 1,877 g/t Ag, 6.24% Pb, 2.89% Zn, and 0.77% Cu over a 2.07 m interval of vein S8E1 at the 697 m elevation;
• Hole ZKDB4AS701 intersected 738 g/t Ag, 10.75% Pb, and 0.38% Zn over a 1.14 m interval of vein S7 at the 670 m elevation;
• Hole ZKDB55S16W01 intersected 1,259 g/t Ag, 6.61% Pb, and 2.96% Zn over a 2.03 m interval of vein S16W at the 637 m elevation;
• Hole ZK19S808 intersected 162 g/t Ag, 7.26% Pb, and 0.48% Zn over a 7.64 m interval of vein S8 at the 517 m elevation;
• Hole ZK21S7_108 intersected 7,948 g/t Ag, 22.47% Pb, 1.42% Zn, and 1.22% Cu over a 0.55 m interval of vein S7_2 at the 470 m elevation;
• Hole ZK4AS2002 intersected 1,167 g/t Ag, 0.71% Pb, and 0.34% Zn over a 0.96 m interval of vein S31 at the 432 m elevation;
• Hole ZK00S2901 intersected 13,490 g/t Ag, 17.41% Pb, 5.37% Zn, and 0.77% Cu over a 0.52 m interval of vein S14 at the 402 m elevation;
• Hole ZK12S2W2012 intersected 1,577 g/t Ag, 19.42% Pb, 4.26% Zn, and 0.16% Cu over a 2.22 m interval of vein S2W2 at the 376 m elevation;
• Hole ZK12S7a104 intersected 1,206 g/t Ag, 4.74% Pb, 1.68% Zn, and 0.27% Cu over a 2.25 m interval of vein S21 at the 304 m elevation;
• Hole ZK12S1001 intersected 2,783 g/t Ag, 66.19% Pb, and 4.40% Zn over a 0.90 m interval of vein S1 at the 290 m elevation;
• Hole ZK6AS2W06 intersected 1,317 g/t Ag, 9.78% Pb, and 2.25% Zn over a 0.93 m interval of vein S6 at the 193 m elevation; and
• Hole ZK08AS2W2005 intersected 1,645 g/t Ag, 21.25% Pb, 3.11% Zn, and 0.29% Cu over a 1.79 m interval of vein S39 at the 156 m elevation.

From January 1, 2022, to June 15, 2023, a total of 88,194 m in 488 diamond drill holes, including 398 underground holes and 90 surface holes, were completed at the SGX mine. Assay results for 483 holes have been received, with 280 holes intercepting mineralization. Currently, there are 15 rigs drilling at the SGX mine.

The drilling program has been focused on three areas: 1) silver-lead-zinc (Ag-Pb-Zn) vein structures in the resource area at higher elevations, close to surface, which have seen limited exploration; 2) infilling above or below previously-mined stopes where production stopped due to higher than modelled variability in grades, thicknesses, and attitudes of the vein structures; and 3) stepping out to test new vein structures to the southeast of the resource area.

Drilling Near-Surface Ag-Pb-Zn Vein Structures within the Resource Area

Drilling over the past few years primarily focused on testing the lateral and downdip extent of known vein structures and paid insufficient attention to their extension potential at elevations above 500 m. High-grade Ag-Pb-Zn vein structures intersected at higher elevations include the S7 series, S8 series, S16 series, S21 series, S1 series, S2, S6, S14 series, and S32 (Table 1).

Drilling Above or Beneath Previously-Mined Stopes within the Resource Area

Most holes drilled during this period targeted blocks of known Ag-Pb-Zn vein structures that were previously missed due to limited drilling or tunneling, changes in thickness, strike and dip of the pay-zones in veins within the resource areas below the 500 m elevation. The high grade intercepts are mainly associated with the northwest-dipping S1 series, S2 series, S6 series, S7 series, S8 series, S14 series, S18 series, S19 series, S21 series, and the east-dipping S31, S28, S29, and S32 veins. These intercepts have led to significant expansion and upgrading of resources. Since access tunnels are already in place, these defined high-grade blocks can be quickly converted to reserves and mined.

Step-Out Surface Drilling Intersecting Ag-Pb-Zn Veins and Au-Ag-Pb-Zn Veins to the Southeast of the Resource Area

Step-out surface drilling intersected high-grade Ag-Pb-Zn veins S26E and S54, and Au-Ag-Pb-Zn veins S51 and S57 to the southeast of the resource area. Hole ZKDBS511201, which intersected high-grade Au-Ag-Pb-Zn vein S51, is approximately 1,200 m southeast of the resource area.

Table 1: Selected intercepts from the drilling programs at the SGX mine

Quality Control

Drill cores are NQ size. Drill core samples, limited by apparent mineralization contacts or shear/alteration contacts, were split into halves by sawing. The half cores are stored in the Company's core shacks for future reference and checks, and the other half core samples are shipped in securely sealed bags to the Chengde Huakan 514 Geology and Minerals Test and Research Institute in Chengde, Hebei Province, China, 226 km northeast of Beijing, the Zhengzhou Nonferrous Exploration Institute Lab in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China, and SGS in Tianjin, China. All three labs are ISO9000 certified analytical labs. For analysis, the sample is dried and crushed to minus 1 mm and then split into a 200-300 g subsample which is further pulverized to minus 200 mesh. Two subsamples are prepared from the pulverized sample. One is digested with aqua regia for gold analysis with atomic absorption spectroscopy ("AAS"), and the other is digested by two-acid digestion for analysis of silver, lead, zinc, and copper with AAS.

Channel samples are collected along sample lines perpendicular to the mineralized vein structure in exploration tunnels. Spacing between sampling lines is typically 5 m along strike. Both the mineralized vein and the altered wall rocks are cut by continuous chisel chipping. Sample length ranges from 0.2 m to more than 1 m, depending on the width of the mineralized vein and the mineralization type. Channel samples are prepared and assayed with AAS at Silvercorp's mine laboratory ("Ying Lab") located at the mill complex in Luoning County, Henan Province, China. The Ying lab is officially accredited by the Quality and Technology Monitoring Bureau of Henan Province and is qualified to provide analytical services. The channel samples are dried, crushed and pulverized. A 200 g sample of minus 160 mesh is prepared for assay. A duplicate sample of minus 1 mm is made and kept in the laboratory archives. Gold is analysed by fire assay with AAS finish, while silver, lead, zinc, and copper are assayed by two-acid digestion with AAS finish.

A routine quality assurance/quality control ("QA/QC") procedure is adopted to monitor the analytical quality at each lab. Certified reference materials (CRMs), pulp duplicates and blanks are inserted into each batch of lab samples. QA/QC data at the lab are attached to the assay certificates for each batch of samples.

The Company maintains its own comprehensive QA/QC program to ensure best practices in sample preparation and analysis of the exploration samples. Project geologists regularly insert CRMs, field duplicates and blanks to each batch of 30 core samples to monitor the sample preparation and analysis procedures at the labs. The analytical quality of the labs is further evaluated with external checks by sending approximately 3-5% of the pulp samples to higher level labs to check for lab bias.  Data from both the Company's and the labs' QA/QC programs are reviewed on a timely basis by project geologists.

Guoliang Ma, P. Geo., Manager of Exploration and Resource of the Company, is the Qualified Person for Silvercorp under NI 43-101 and has reviewed and given consent to the technical information contained in this news release.

About Silvercorp

Silvercorp is a profitable Canadian mining company producing silver, lead and zinc metals in concentrates from mines in China. The Company's goal is to continuously create healthy returns to shareholders through efficient management, organic growth and the acquisition of profitable projects. Silvercorp balances profitability, social and environmental relationships, employees' wellbeing, and sustainable development.  For more information, please visit our website at www.silvercorp.ca.

For further information

Lon Shaver
Vice President
Silvercorp Metals Inc.

Phone: (604) 669-9397
Toll Free: 1 (888) 224-1881
Email: investor@silvercorp.ca
Website: www.silvercorpmetals.com

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Certain of the statements and information in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian provincial securities laws. Any statements or information that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "expects", "is expected", "anticipates", "believes", "plans", "projects", "estimates", "assumes", "intends", "strategies", "targets", "goals", "forecasts", "objectives", "budgets", "schedules", "potential" or variations thereof or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative of any of these terms and similar expressions) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements or information.  Forward-looking statements or information relate to, among other things: the price of silver and other metals; the accuracy of mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates at the Company's material properties; the sufficiency of the Company's capital to finance the Company's operations; estimates of the Company's revenues and capital expenditures; estimated production from the Company's mines in the Ying Mining District; timing of receipt of permits and regulatory approvals; availability of funds from production to finance the Company's operations; and access to and availability of funding for future construction, use of proceeds from any financing and development of the Company's properties.

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CAUTIONARY NOTE TO US INVESTORS

The disclosure in this news release and referred to herein was prepared in accordance with NI 43-101 which differs significantly from the requirements of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC").  The terms "proven mineral reserve", "probable mineral reserve" and "mineral reserves" used in this news release are in reference to the mining terms defined in the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum Standards (the "CIM Definition Standards"), which definitions have been adopted by NI 43-101.  Accordingly, information contained in this news release providing descriptions of our mineral deposits in accordance with NI 43-101 may not be comparable to similar information made public by other U.S. companies subject to the United States federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.

Investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of mineral resources will ever be converted into reserves. Pursuant to CIM Definition Standards, "Inferred mineral resources" are that part of a mineral resource for which quantity and grade or quality are estimated on the basis of limited geological evidence and sampling.  Such geological evidence is sufficient to imply but not verify geological and grade or quality continuity.  An inferred mineral resource has a lower level of confidence than that applying to an indicated mineral resource and must not be converted to a mineral reserve. However, it is reasonably expected that the majority of inferred mineral resources could be upgraded to indicated mineral resources with continued exploration.  Under Canadian rules, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of feasibility or pre-feasibility studies, except in rare cases.  Investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource is economically or legally mineable.  Disclosure of "contained ounces" in a resource is permitted disclosure under Canadian regulations; however, the SEC normally only permits issuers to report mineralization that does not constitute "reserves" by SEC standards as in place tonnage and grade without reference to unit measures.

Canadian standards, including the CIM Definition Standards and NI 43-101, differ significantly from standards in the SEC Industry Guide 7.  Effective February 25, 2019, the SEC adopted new mining disclosure rules under subpart 1300 of Regulation S-K of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "SEC Modernization Rules"), with compliance required for the first fiscal year beginning on or after January 1, 2021.  The SEC Modernization Rules replace the historical property disclosure requirements included in SEC Industry Guide 7.  As a result of the adoption of the SEC Modernization Rules, the SEC now recognizes estimates of "Measured Mineral Resources", "Indicated Mineral Resources" and "Inferred Mineral Resources".  In addition, the SEC has amended its definitions of "Proven Mineral Reserves" and "Probable Mineral Reserves" to be substantially similar to corresponding definitions under the CIM Definition Standards.  During the period leading up to the compliance date of the SEC Modernization Rules, information regarding mineral resources or reserves contained or referenced in this news release may not be comparable to similar information made public by companies that report according to U.S. standards.  While the SEC Modernization Rules are purported to be "substantially similar" to the CIM Definition Standards, readers are cautioned that there are differences between the SEC Modernization Rules and the CIM Definitions Standards.  Accordingly, there is no assurance any mineral reserves or mineral resources that the Company may report as "proven mineral reserves", "probable mineral reserves", "measured mineral resources", "indicated mineral resources" and "inferred mineral resources" under NI 43-101 would be the same had the Company prepared the reserve or resource estimates under the standards adopted under the SEC Modernization Rules.