Silvercorp Metals Inc. (TSX: SVM) (NYSE American: SVM) is pleased to report high-grade silver-lead intercepts from its ongoing diamond drilling program at the SGX mine in the Ying Mining District, China.

Highlights (all intersections are in core lengths):

• Hole ZKDBS27E0301 intersected 1,660 grams per tonne silver, 0.21% lead, 0.12% zinc and 1.61% copper over a 0.51 metre interval of vein S54 at the 849 m elevation;
• Hole ZKDB0S8E101 intersected 1,877 g/t Ag, 6.24% Pb, 2.89% Zn, and 0.77% Cu over a 2.07 m interval of vein S8E1 at the 697 m elevation;
• Hole ZKDB4AS701 intersected 738 g/t Ag, 10.75% Pb, and 0.38% Zn over a 1.14 m interval of vein S7 at the 670 m elevation;
• Hole ZKDB55S16W01 intersected 1,259 g/t Ag, 6.61% Pb, and 2.96% Zn over a 2.03 m interval of vein S16W at the 637 m elevation;
• Hole ZK19S808 intersected 162 g/t Ag, 7.26% Pb, and 0.48% Zn over a 7.64 m interval of vein S8 at the 517 m elevation;
• Hole ZK21S7_108 intersected 7,948 g/t Ag, 22.47% Pb, 1.42% Zn, and 1.22% Cu over a 0.55 m interval of vein S7_2 at the 470 m elevation;
• Hole ZK4AS2002 intersected 1,167 g/t Ag, 0.71% Pb, and 0.34% Zn over a 0.96 m interval of vein S31 at the 432 m elevation;
• Hole ZK00S2901 intersected 13,490 g/t Ag, 17.41% Pb, 5.37% Zn, and 0.77% Cu over a 0.52 m interval of vein S14 at the 402 m elevation;
• Hole ZK12S2W2012 intersected 1,577 g/t Ag, 19.42% Pb, 4.26% Zn, and 0.16% Cu over a 2.22 m interval of vein S2W2 at the 376 m elevation;
• Hole ZK12S7a104 intersected 1,206 g/t Ag, 4.74% Pb, 1.68% Zn, and 0.27% Cu over a 2.25 m interval of vein S21 at the 304 m elevation;
• Hole ZK12S1001 intersected 2,783 g/t Ag, 66.19% Pb, and 4.40% Zn over a 0.90 m interval of vein S1 at the 290 m elevation;
• Hole ZK6AS2W06 intersected 1,317 g/t Ag, 9.78% Pb, and 2.25% Zn over a 0.93 m interval of vein S6 at the 193 m elevation; and
• Hole ZK08AS2W2005 intersected 1,645 g/t Ag, 21.25% Pb, 3.11% Zn, and 0.29% Cu over a 1.79 m interval of vein S39 at the 156 m elevation.

From January 1, 2022, to June 15, 2023, a total of 88,194 m in 488 diamond drill holes, including 398 underground holes and 90 surface holes, were completed at the SGX mine. Assay results for 483 holes have been received, with 280 holes intercepting mineralization. Currently, there are 15 rigs drilling at the SGX mine.

The drilling program has been focused on three areas: 1) silver-lead-zinc (Ag-Pb-Zn) vein structures in the resource area at higher elevations, close to surface, which have seen limited exploration; 2) infilling above or below previously-mined stopes where production stopped due to higher than modelled variability in grades, thicknesses, and attitudes of the vein structures; and 3) stepping out to test new vein structures to the southeast of the resource area.

Drilling Near-Surface Ag-Pb-Zn Vein Structures within the Resource Area

Drilling over the past few years primarily focused on testing the lateral and downdip extent of known vein structures and paid insufficient attention to their extension potential at elevations above 500 m. High-grade Ag-Pb-Zn vein structures intersected at higher elevations include the S7 series, S8 series, S16 series, S21 series, S1 series, S2, S6, S14 series, and S32 (Table 1).

Drilling Above or Beneath Previously-Mined Stopes within the Resource Area

Most holes drilled during this period targeted blocks of known Ag-Pb-Zn vein structures that were previously missed due to limited drilling or tunneling, changes in thickness, strike and dip of the pay-zones in veins within the resource areas below the 500 m elevation. The high grade intercepts are mainly associated with the northwest-dipping S1 series, S2 series, S6 series, S7 series, S8 series, S14 series, S18 series, S19 series, S21 series, and the east-dipping S31, S28, S29, and S32 veins. These intercepts have led to significant expansion and upgrading of resources. Since access tunnels are already in place, these defined high-grade blocks can be quickly converted to reserves and mined.

Step-Out Surface Drilling Intersecting Ag-Pb-Zn Veins and Au-Ag-Pb-Zn Veins to the Southeast of the Resource Area

Step-out surface drilling intersected high-grade Ag-Pb-Zn veins S26E and S54, and Au-Ag-Pb-Zn veins S51 and S57 to the southeast of the resource area. Hole ZKDBS511201, which intersected high-grade Au-Ag-Pb-Zn vein S51, is approximately 1,200 m southeast of the resource area.

Table 1: Selected intercepts from the drilling programs at the SGX mine

Quality Control

Drill cores are NQ size. Drill core samples, limited by apparent mineralization contacts or shear/alteration contacts, were split into halves by sawing. The half cores are stored in the Company’s core shacks for future reference and checks, and the other half core samples are shipped in securely sealed bags to the Chengde Huakan 514 Geology and Minerals Test and Research Institute in Chengde, Hebei Province, China, 226 km northeast of Beijing, the Zhengzhou Nonferrous Exploration Institute Lab in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China, and SGS in Tianjin, China. All three labs are ISO9000 certified analytical labs. For analysis, the sample is dried and crushed to minus 1 mm and then split into a 200-300 g subsample which is further pulverized to minus 200 mesh. Two subsamples are prepared from the pulverized sample. One is digested with aqua regia for gold analysis with atomic absorption spectroscopy, and the other is digested by two-acid digestion for analysis of silver, lead, zinc, and copper with AAS.

Channel samples are collected along sample lines perpendicular to the mineralized vein structure in exploration tunnels. Spacing between sampling lines is typically 5 m along strike. Both the mineralized vein and the altered wall rocks are cut by continuous chisel chipping. Sample length ranges from 0.2 m to more than 1 m, depending on the width of the mineralized vein and the mineralization type. Channel samples are prepared and assayed with AAS at Silvercorp’s mine laboratory (“Ying Lab”) located at the mill complex in Luoning County, Henan Province, China. The Ying lab is officially accredited by the Quality and Technology Monitoring Bureau of Henan Province and is qualified to provide analytical services. The channel samples are dried, crushed and pulverized. A 200 g sample of minus 160 mesh is prepared for assay. A duplicate sample of minus 1 mm is made and kept in the laboratory archives. Gold is analysed by fire assay with AAS finish, while silver, lead, zinc, and copper are assayed by two-acid digestion with AAS finish.

A routine quality assurance/quality control procedure is adopted to monitor the analytical quality at each lab. Certified reference materials, pulp duplicates and blanks are inserted into each batch of lab samples. QA/QC data at the lab are attached to the assay certificates for each batch of samples.

The Company maintains its own comprehensive QA/QC program to ensure best practices in sample preparation and analysis of the exploration samples. Project geologists regularly insert CRMs, field duplicates and blanks to each batch of 30 core samples to monitor the sample preparation and analysis procedures at the labs. The analytical quality of the labs is further evaluated with external checks by sending approximately 3-5% of the pulp samples to higher level labs to check for lab bias.  Data from both the Company’s and the labs’ QA/QC programs are reviewed on a timely basis by project geologists.

Guoliang Ma, P. Geo., Manager of Exploration and Resource of the Company, is the Qualified Person for Silvercorp under NI 43-101 and has reviewed and given consent to the technical information contained in this news release.

About Silvercorp

Silvercorp is a profitable Canadian mining company producing silver, lead and zinc metals in concentrates from mines in China. The Company’s goal is to continuously create healthy returns to shareholders through efficient management, organic growth and the acquisition of profitable projects. Silvercorp balances profitability, social and environmental relationships, employees’ wellbeing, and sustainable development.