Highlights include intersection of significant assays including 8.37 g/t over 6.55 m at the Wing Zone in drill hole 21GSE601 and the discovery of a new structural trend hosting mineralized quartz veining and a quartz feldspar porphyry dyke.

Sabina Gold & Silver Corp (TSX:SSB) (OTCQX:SGSCF) is pleased to announce final results from the company’s spring drilling program focused on the Hook Target and four additional early-stage exploration areas, on its 100%-owned Back River Gold Project  in Nunavut, Canada.

Overview

Final results for the 2021 spring drilling season have now been received following the completion of the drill campaign. This year’s campaign tested the Hook zone which is thought to be the link between the Goose Main and Nuvuyak deposits, as well as drilled four early-stage targets, progressing the target pipeline on the Goose Property.

As previously announced, at Hook, the successful four-hole program was highlighted by hole 21GSE600 which returned 5.42 g/t Au over 28.05 m, including 12.68 g/t Au over 5.30 m (see press release August 10, 2021) confirming Hook as a key mineralizing trend linking the Goose Main and Nuvuyak deposits. Remaining results for the Hook drilling are now available (Table 2) and are currently being integrated into the geological and mineralization modelling in support of future follow up drilling in 2022.

Additionally, four early-stage targets were tested, including the Wing zone, two targets associated with strong electromagnetic (EM) anomalies and a secondary iron formation target, the Llama Deep Iron Formation (Figure 1). Highlights include a strong intersection of 8.37 g/t over 6.55 m from drillhole 21GSE601 in the Wing zone; the successful discovery of a new mineralizing structure associated with a previously un-drilled EM anomaly; and the identification of a new iron formation horizon located outside the main Lower Iron Formation horizon.

“After several years focused on growing and strengthening the Back River resources resulting in the addition of 1M ounces in each of the Measured and Indicated and Inferred categories, we turned our focus back to greenfield targets to continue advancing the Back River project pipeline. This strong intercept at Wing continues to distinguish the Goose gold system as outstanding and we look forward to further success in developing a strong target and mining pipeline for years to come,” said Bruce McLeod, President & CEO.

The Wing Zone

The Wing Zone is defined as an east-dipping anticline plunging from surface southerly for up to 800+ m parallel to the Llama Deposit (Figure 2; Resource of 756,000 ounces at 6.70 g/t Au in Measured and Indicated classification, and 69,000 ounces at 6.29 g/t Au in Inferred). Historic drilling at Wing shows potential for shallow zones of mineralization as demonstrated by this year’s results. Drill hole 21GSE601 intersected shallow mineralization with an impressive interval of 8.37 g/t Au over 6.55 m starting approximately 50 m below the surface (Table 1). This intercept contains high-grade gold including 45.60 g/t Au over 0.90 m which corresponded to visible gold in a quartz vein with strong chlorite alteration accompanied by coarse grained arsenopyrite mineralization. This shallow intercept confirms this zone, with a 100 m strike length, has mineralization that is < 75 m vertical and has an average gram meter product of >20 g/t * m. The second drill hole, 21GSE604, a down plunge step out, intersected a broad zone of weakly anomalous Au from 135.50-168.15 m within a thick oxide iron formation package. This affirms the iron formation package at the Wing Zone remains a strong thickened host for possible gold mineralization down plunge.

Figure 1: Plan map of 2021 drill hole collar locations highlighting lengths of conductive responses from Dighem CX 5500 Conductivity survey. Iron Formation shown on surface and Au zones projected to Surface.

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5f5e3f9f-11f2-4e93-81c7-377568ddc30e

Figure 2: Oblique view (looking northwest) showing drill hole 21GSE601 at the Wing Zone, against iron formation (orange), gold mineralization (red), and UFS mine plans for the Llama Deposit (grey)

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e53cd1f6-f63c-4805-92fd-f6a3ae1e897e

Exploration Targets

The Goose Lake EM 1 and Goose Lake EM 2 targets (Figure 1) represent two previously undrilled EM anomalies that are located approximately 2.5 km and 1 km respectively north of the Goose Main deposit. The parallels between the Goose Main deposit’s orientation and associated EM response motivated this drilling at these previously untested EM anomalies. This spring drilling has led to important geological discoveries with large implications to the mineralizing system on a regional scale that Sabina is eager to advance.

The EM 1 target is a 375 m long conductive response that has a similar orientation to the ~350 m long conductive high which marks the west-northwest trending F1 anticline of the Goose Main deposit. A total of four shallow drill holes tested this target highlighted by the discovery of significant quartz veining and arsenopyrite mineralization within the clastic sedimentary host rock. Visible gold was observed in drill hole 21GSE592 within a zone that returned 2.93 g/t over 3.35 m (Table 1). Further encouraging elements include the geological discovery of an additional quartz-feldspar porphyry (QFP) dyke within this area of the property. QFP dykes at the Goose property commonly exploit and demark large-scale D1 structures that are coincident to known resource discoveries. The intensity of the veining accompanied by strong sulphide mineralization in proximity to the QFP dyke indicates a structurally complex zone that has experienced significant mineralizing fluid interaction.

To the southeast, the Goose Lake EM 2 target is a broader conductive response of similar length that was tested by three drill holes. Excitedly, an extensive 70-100 m zone of interbedded mudstone and silicate iron formation was intersected. Mineralization was variable with sulphide mineral concentrations locally increasing to 10 percent. This identifies a previously unknown iron formation horizon that will be important to define as new mineralization pathways are identified outside of the primary oxide iron formation.

Table 1: Significant gold intervals for the Wing, EM and Llama DIF targets.

With the completion of spring drilling, summer field work has been ongoing since July 1^st, 2021. The focus of this summer’s field work is directed towards a dedicated assessment of the George Property mineralization and priority targets for 2022 advancement. In addition, an early stage till sampling survey was conducted over newly recorded claims west of the primary Goose Lake leases with results pending.

Table 2: Complete significant gold intervals from the 2021 drill program.

Debt Facility Clarification

In a news release dated August 30, 2021 relating to a US$20 million debt facility, the Company disclosed the maturity date of the facility at September 27, 2022. This was a typographical error, the maturity date is September 17, 2022.

Qualified Persons

The Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 as pertains to the Back River Project, is James Maxwell P.Geo, Director of Exploration, for the Company.

All drill core samples selected within the exploration program are subject to a company standard of internal quality control and quality assurance programs which include the insertion of certified reference materials, blank materials and duplicates analysis. All samples are sent to ALS Global laboratories locations in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and Vancouver, British Columbia where they are processed for gold analysis by 50 gram fire assay with finish by a combination of atomic absorption and gravimetric methods. Additionally, analysis by screen metallic processes is performed on select samples. ALS Global quality systems conform to requirements of ISO/IEC Standard 17025 guidelines and meets assay requirements outlined for NI 43-101.

Sabina Gold & Silver Corp.

Sabina Gold & Silver Corp. is well-financed and is an emerging precious metals company with district scale, advanced, high grade gold assets in Nunavut, Canada.

Sabina recently filed an Updated Feasibility Study on its 100% owned Back River Gold Project which presents a project that will produce ~223,000 ounces of gold a year (first five years average of 287,000 ounces a year with peak production of 312,000 ounces in year three) for ~15 years with a rapid payback of 2.3 years, with a post-tax IRR of ~28% and NPV_5% of C$1.1B. See “National Instrument (NI) 43-101 Technical Report – 2021 Updated Feasibility Study for the Goose Project at the Back River Gold District, Nunavut, Canada” dated March 3, 2021.

The Project received its final major authorization on June 25, 2020 and is now in receipt of all major permits and authorizations for construction and operations.

In addition to Back River, Sabina also owns a significant silver royalty on Glencore’s Hackett River Project. The silver royalty on Hackett River’s silver production is comprised of 22.5% of the first 190 million ounces produced and 12.5% of all silver produced thereafter.