Bunker Hill Mining Continues To Advance Rapid Restart Program

TORONTO - Bunker Hill Mining Corporation reported the successful commissioning of its water pre-treatment plant, designed to significantly improve the quality of mine water discharge from the Bunker Hill mine. This supports a sustainable restart of mining operations based on modern zero-footprint techniques designed to enhance the quality of the environment.

Sam Ash, CEO, said, “Managing our mine water discharge is an essential part of a strategy designed to rapidly re-start the Bunker Hill mine as a low cost, modern, and sustainable operation. Together with our high-grade silver exploration program and delineation of our maiden NI 43-101 compliant resource, the successful commissioning of our pre-treatment plant marks another key milestone in achieving this goal and highlights our new team’s technical capabilities. We remain on track to deliver our PEA by early Q2 2021.”

The Company began its water management program in September 2020 with the goal of improving the understanding of the mine’s water system and enacting immediate improvement in the water quality of effluent leaving the mine for treatment at the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Central Treatment Plant (CTP). The recently commissioned pre-treatment system achieves this goal by reducing significantly the amount of treatment required at the CTP, and the associated costs, before the mine water is discharged into the south fork of the Coeur D’Alene River. The Company’s new pre-treatment system is removing over 70% of the metals from water before it leaves the mine, with the potential for further improvements.

Results from the testing of mine effluent discharged from Kellogg Tunnel indicate a significant reduction in its metal content when compared to previous time periods. Lab testing conducted by Silver Valley Analytical, Inc. an environmental testing laboratory based in Kellogg, Idaho, indicate a 71% reduction in zinc in the course of only a couple days of operation. Results for cadmium indicate similar results with dissolved levels reduced by 72% from the previous month. Working with the EPA and other stakeholders, the Company will continue to monitor the mine’s internal water system and the quality of water discharged from the Kellogg Tunnel as a routine part of its environmental management plans, whilst seeking out ways to further improve the sustainability of its operations and development plans.