Option Agreement To Explore The SIB Project 

VANCOUVER - Silver Standard Resources Inc. has signed an option agreement with Eskay Mining Corp. to acquire up to a 60% undivided interest in the SIB project, located in British Columbia, Canada. Carl Edmunds, Chief Geologist at Silver Standard said, "The SIB project is a very exciting exploration target in Northern Canada due to it's higher grade drill results, the fact that these types of PME-VMS deposits often occur in clusters and this property is 4 kilometers along strike from the prolific Eskay Creek mine, which produced over 3 million ounces of gold and nearly 160 million ounces of silver between 1994 and 2008. Previous work from the 1990's discovered PME-VMS at the Lulu zone, on SIB, near surface, and later attempts for further exploration were hindered by the presence of a fault potentially displacing the extension to mineralization.  Subsequent work by Eskay Mining discovered the extension of the Lulu and Eskay Creek host felsic volcanic rocks below this fault, opening a large area for exploration by drilling. At Silver Standard, we remain disciplined with our greenfields exploration activities and this agreement demonstrates we are ready to act when an extraordinary opportunity arises."