VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Silvercorp Metals Inc. (“Silvercorp” or the “Company”) is pleased to report that a drill program targeting gold (“Au”) mineralization is underway at the LMW, LME and TLP mines within the Ying Mining District, Henan Province, China.Silvercorp has previously reported limited gold assay results in news releases dated January 4, 2011, January 10, 2011, January 26, 2012, February 13, 2012, August 20, 2012, January 31, 2013 and February 19, 2014 for the LMW, LME and TLP mines, but as the focus was on mining silver-lead-zinc veins the characterization of gold mineralization was poorly understood. As such, many gold-bearing intercept results from drilling over the years have never been released as they do not fit into any known silver-lead-zinc veins that are mined by the Company.Recent tunneling programs have exposed gently-dipping quartz-ankerite-sulfide shear zones with high gold and copper values, such as LM22 and LM26 at the LMW mine and LM4E2 at the LME mine. The photos below show the exposed LM22 structure from the LMW mine of a massive quartz-ankerite-sulfide vein composed of 19% Cu and 20 g/t Au over 0.3 metres (“m”) within a silicification shear zone. This clearly shows that the gold-mineralized, sub-horizontal, quartz-ankerite-sulfide shear zones were cut and over-printed by the later stage sub-vertical silver-lead-zinc veins that Silvercorp has been mining.Figure 1 is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/12645a9b-6567-4c24-8745-00588bbe568dFigure 2 is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7f7ba998-65f3-46dc-adfe-a1e7e9215f6dInitial sample results from these tunnels and decline are listed in Table 1. LM22, from the decline at 805 m elevation, extends 30 m long with a 0.43 m sample width and an average grade of 13.95 g/t Au, 2.2% Cu and 26 g/t Ag. Vein LM26 also contains high copper and gold values.Table 1: Au mineralized zones exposed by drift tunneling at the LMW and LME minesWith the discovery of the sub-horizontal nature of gold-related shear zones, the Company has re-examined its database for drill intercepts with gold grades in earlier drilling programs. Table 2 lists the assay results of the drill holes with gold values higher than 2.0 g/t that have not been released before. Most of these gold carrying intercepts were not mined as many tunnels advanced horizontally and did not hit these sub-horizontal shear zones.The intercepts from Table 2 are relatively narrow, which is mostly due to selective sampling techniques as current exploration in the Ying Mining District is targeting narrow veins. Logging of the drill core shows much wider quartz-ankerite-epidote-k-feldspar-biotite-sulfide alteration, but only narrow samples were taken in most occasions.From Table 2, sub-horizontal shear zone LM22 was intercepted by three sub-vertical drill holes ZKX0308, ZKX0310 and ZKX0309 near 840 m elevation. ZKX0308 has a sample width of 0.28 m grading 22.65 g/t Au and 19.8% Cu, ZKX0310 has a sample width of 0.50 m grading 75.7 g/t Au and 0.35% Cu, and ZKX0309 has a sample width of 0.28 m grading 63.5 g/t Au and 0.32% Cu. ZKX0309 also intercepted multiple sub-horizontal shear zones, including LM26 with a sample width of 0.61 m grading 4.7 g/t Au at 662 m elevation, and an unknown shear zone at 403 m elevation with a sample width of 0.91 m grading 2.55 g/t Au.LM26 was also intercepted by drill hole ZKX0306 at 625 m elevation with a sample width of 0.57 m grading 22.35 g/t Au.Highlights of selected drill hole interceptions with higher Au values:Hole ZKX10505 has a sample width 0.51m from 397.94 m to 398.45 m, grading 25.42 g/t Au and 15 g/t Ag from LMW;Hole ZKL5033 has a sample width of 0.55m grading 29.5 g/t Au from LMEHole ZK-Ⅲ-1124 has a sample width of 1.22 m grading 9.17 g/t Au, 314 g/t Ag and 2.12% Pb from TLP;Hole ZKT05S35 has a sample width of 2.0 m grading 3.92 g/t Au, 2765 g/t Ag, 4.95% Pb and 0.88% Cu from TLP;Hole ZKT2901 has a sample width of 2.54 m grading 3.6 g/t Au, 266 g/t Ag, 8.55% Pb and 3.52% Cu from TLP.Table 2: Selected drill holes with higher Au valuesCurrently, the historical drill cores are being re-logged and sampled for the alteration zones not previously sampled and assayed. Meanwhile, the Company will focus its ongoing drilling program to target gold bearing zones intercepted by the above drill holes with a total of ten drill rigs at the LMW, TLP and LME mines (three underground rigs and two surface rigs for LMW, three underground rigs for TLP, and two underground rigs for LME) with the intention of continuous sampling of all alteration zones to test for the existence of broad gold mineralization zones.Quality Control
Drill cores are NQ size. Drill core samples, limited by apparent mineralization contact or shear/alteration contact, were split into halves by saw cutting. The half cores are stored in the Company’s core shacks for future reference and checking, and the other half core samples are shipped in security-sealed bags to the Chengde Huakan 514 Geology and Minerals Test and Research Institute in Chengde, Hebei Province, China, 226 km northeast of Beijing, and the Zhengzhou Nonferrous Exploration Institute Lab in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China. Both labs are ISO9000 certified analytical labs. For analysis the sample is dried and crushed to minus 1mm and then split to a 200-300g 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 with two-acids for analysis of silver, lead, zinc and copper with AAS.About SilvercorpSilvercorp 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 informationLon Shaver
Vice President
Silvercorp Metals Inc.Phone: (604) 669-9397
Toll Free: 1(888) 224-1881
Email: investor@silvercorp.ca
Website: www.silvercorp.caCAUTIONARY DISCLAIMER – FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTSCertain 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.Forward-looking statements or information are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements or information, including, without limitation, risks relating to: social and economic impacts of COVID-19; fluctuating commodity prices; calculation of resources, reserves and mineralization and precious and base metal recovery; interpretations and assumptions of mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates; exploration and development programs; feasibility and engineering reports; permits and licenses; title to properties; property interests; joint venture partners; acquisition of commercially mineable mineral rights; financing; recent market events and conditions; economic factors affecting the Company; timing, estimated amount, capital and operating expenditures and economic returns of future production; integration of future acquisitions into the Company’s existing operations; competition; operations and political conditions; regulatory environment in China and Canada; environmental risks; foreign exchange rate fluctuations; insurance; risks and hazards of mining operations; key personnel; conflicts of interest; dependence on management; internal control over financial reporting as per the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act; and bringing actions and enforcing judgments under U.S. securities laws.This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of the Company’s forward-looking statements or information. Forward-looking statements or information are statements about the future and are inherently uncertain, and actual achievements of the Company or other future events or conditions may differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements or information due to a variety of risks, uncertainties and other factors, including, without limitation, those referred to in the Company’s most recent Annual Information Form under the heading “Risk Factors”. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, described or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. The Company’s forward-looking statements and information are based on the assumptions, beliefs, expectations and opinions of management as of the date of this press release, and other than as required by applicable securities laws, the Company does not assume any obligation to update forward-looking statements and information if circumstances or management’s assumptions, beliefs, expectations or opinions should change, or changes in any other events affecting such statements or information. For the reasons set forth above, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information.
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