Silver Bear Resources Inc. ("Silver Bear" or the "Company") (TSX:SBR) today announces that the Russian State Subsoil Agency ("Rosnedra") has granted the Company a four year extension to the term of the exploration licence relating to Silver Bear's Mangazeisky Silver Property in Yakutia, Russia. Prior to the extension, the company was permitted to explore on the property until December 31, 2012. The extension provides that the new licence term will run to December 31, 2016, allowing the Company to significantly extend its exploration activities on the property.
"This is a significant milestone for Silver Bear," said CEO Mark Trevisiol. "This extension is an important achievement for the Company. It will allow us to maintain our focus on enlarging the mineral resource and prepare for production through continued exploration activities at the project site. The extension is also a testament to the active interest and support of both Russian and Canadian governments to promote license stability and encourage investment and cooperation in mining and natural resource development in Russia. This is a welcome message not only to Silver Bear, but to all mining investors in Russia."
Concurrently, the Company has also applied for a mining licence (production licence) on the Vertikalny portion of its territory and continues to discuss and consult with the Russian authorities on the best way to obtain mining rights for the largest possible mineral resource base.
Geological assessments on the property conducted under Russian resource categories have indicated an historic mineral resource estimate of up to 975 million ounces of Silver in Russian P1 and P2 resources (see Table 1 and note labelled "Historical Resources" in this announcement).
In conjunction with the extension of the Exploration Licence, management believes the Company's progress in developing mining operations at the project could be accelerated by the Company's current re-assessment of a number of high grade near surface mineralized lenses. The Company is investigating the potential to extract the mineralization from these surface lenses through a series of shallow "open pit" type mining methods. Management believes this has the potential to decrease mine development time and capital thereby accelerating the time to production. The Company is currently studying the possibilities of defining an NI 43-101 compliant mineral reserve and resource estimate and Russian C1 and C2 compliant mineral resource estimate that would allow the Company to accelerate its development towards production. The Company hopes to update the market in due course as to the results of its internal work and work with external consultants.
The company has completed a Preliminary Economic Assessment in 2011 (see September 28, 2011 announcement). Highlights of the PEA include:
As shown in Figure 1, the exploration licence covers an area of approximately 570 square kilometres. The property hosts more than 100 silver occurrences in a major north-northwest trending mineralized structure that stretches along a 35 kilometre corridor. The Company's estimated total NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimates on its Mangazeisky property are 1.1 million tonnes containing 17.9 million ounces silver at 518 Ag/t of Indicated mineralization and 4.9 million tonnes containing 43.9 million ounces silver at 282 g/t Ag of total Inferred mineralization (see table 2). Figure 1 highlights that the area containing Silver Bear's NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate (Vertikalny + Nizhny Endybal) represents a very small piece of the total licence area.
To view Figure 1, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/SBR0901_Figure1.pdf.
Table 2 - Summary of NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimates effective as of September 20, 2012
Mr. P. Gribble, FIMMM C.Eng, of Tetra Tech Wardrop (formerly Wardrop Engineering), is the independent qualified person who prepared the mineral resource estimates disclosed above in Table 2. Mark Trevisiol P.Eng, President and CEO of Silver Bear and a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information in this press release.
CAUTIONARY NOTES
Historical Resources
Note that the mineral resource estimate (Table 1) is historical in nature and does not use categories defined in NI 43-101 and thus is not compliant with CIM and NI 43-101 standards. The exact date of this estimate is unknown. Historical resource estimates are based on Russian reserve system and based primarily on trench and prospecting samples only. These resources are considered historical in nature under NI 43-101 and a qualified person under 43-101 has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources. The Company is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources.
PEA report
The Preliminary Economic Assessment report was prepared by Wardrop under the supervision of Mr. P. Gribble, FIMMM C.Eng., who is an independent qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101. Mark Trevisiol P.Eng, President and CEO of Silver Bear is the Company's designated qualified person under National Instrument 43-101 for the PEA and has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information in this press release.
The PEA is preliminary in nature and is based on a number of assumptions that may be changed in the future as additional information becomes available. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The PEA includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the PEA will be realized.
Forward-Looking Information
This release and subsequent oral statements made by and on behalf of the Company may contain forward-looking statements, which reflect management's expectations. Wherever possible, words such as "intends", "expects", "scheduled", "estimates", "anticipates", "believes" and similar expressions or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, have been used to identify these forward-looking statements. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this release reflect management's current beliefs based upon information currently available to management and based upon what management believes to be reasonable assumptions, Silver Bear cannot be certain that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. A number of factors could cause events and achievements to differ materially from the results expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Such risk factors include but are not limited to risk factors identified by Silver Bear in its continuous disclosure filings filed from time to time on SEDAR. These factors should be considered carefully and prospective investors should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements necessarily involve significant known and unknown risks, assumptions and uncertainties that may cause Silver Bear's actual results, events, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although Silver Bear has attempted to identify important risks and factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors and risks that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, prospective investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. These forward- looking statements are made as of the date of this release, and Silver Bear assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances, unless otherwise required by law.
