Updated Mineral Reserve And Resource Estimate

 

TORONTO, ON - Americas Silver Corporation reported updated Mineral Reserve and Resource estimates for its two 100% owned assets, the Galena Complex in Idaho and the Cosala Operations in Sinaloa, Mexico, including the San Rafael, El Cajon, and Nuestra Senora mines, and the Zone 120 deposit. The estimate also includes the San Felipe project in Sonora, Mexico on which the Company holds an option.  

This updated Mineral Reserve and Resource estimate reflects the drilling programs completed between June 30, 2017 and June 30, 2018 as well as production data during that period (where applicable) with an effective date of June 30, 2018 for the estimates.  The Mineral Resources attributable to the San Felipe project have an effective date of March 15, 2018.

Highlights include: Silver inventory contains 26 million ounces of proven and probable reserves, a decrease of 2 million ounces or 9%; 70 million ounces of measured and indicated resources, an increase of 12 million ounces or 21%; and 28 million ounces of inferred resources, a decrease of 9 million ounces or 23%; Zone 120 indicated resources increased by 30% to over 16 million silver ounces; Galena replaced the contained silver in the proven and probable reserves; and The inclusion of the San Felipe project adds 9 million ounces of silver, 560 million pounds of zinc and 256 million pounds of lead to measured and indicated resources as published in the May 3, 2018 technical report. 

“The Company has done a good job at managing its proven and probable mineral reserves and measured and indicated resources despite modest exploration budgets,” said Darren Blasutti, President and CEO.  “With reserves and measured and indicated resources of approximately 100 million ounces of silver, 1.1 billion pounds of zinc, and over 800 million pounds of lead across our royalty- and stream-free properties, we provide very attractive production optionality and per share resource leverage to higher commodity prices.”

Compared to the last Mineral Reserve and Resource estimate at June 30, 2017, silver contained in the consolidated proven and probable reserves dropped 9%, or 2.6 million ounces, to 25.6 million ounces due to mining depletion, the Nuestra Senora mine’s repositioning to care and maintenance, and a change in pillar design at San Rafael. These factors also contributed to the decrease in zinc and lead comparatively between periods. The mining recovery at San Rafael dropped from 90% to 80% after incorporating geotechnical parameters which reflect the pillar requirements associated with the “post-pillar cut and fill” mining method.  Galena continues to primarily produce silver-lead ore and the proven and probable reserves associated with this material decreased by 11% or approximately 0.9 million ounces.  Drilling and additional resource modeling work completed on the silver-copper resource increased the contained silver reserves by 12%, or 0.8 million ounces to 7.9 million ounces.  The net result at Galena is silver contained in the reserves remained unchanged, despite production depletion.

The company’s address is Suite 2870, 145 King Street West, Toronto, ON M5H 1J8, 416-848-9503, fax: 866-401-3069, email: [email protected].