TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwire) -- 01/09/13 -- Silver Bear Resources Inc. ("Silver Bear" or the "Company") (TSX: SBR) today announces that the Russian State Subsoil Agency ("Rosnedra") has granted the Company a four year extension to the term of the exploration licence relating to Silver Bear's Mangazeisky Silver Property in Yakutia, Russia. Prior to the extension, the company was permitted to explore on the property until December 31, 2012. The extension provides that the new licence term will run to December 31, 2016, allowing the Company to significantly extend its exploration activities on the property.
"This is a significant milestone for Silver Bear," said CEO Mark Trevisiol. "This extension is an important achievement for the Company. It will allow us to maintain our focus on enlarging the mineral resource and prepare for production through continued exploration activities at the project site. The extension is also a testament to the active interest and support of both Russian and Canadian governments to promote license stability and encourage investment and cooperation in mining and natural resource development in Russia. This is a welcome message not only to Silver Bear, but to all mining investors in Russia."
Concurrently, the Company has also applied for a mining licence (production licence) on the Vertikalny portion of its territory and continues to discuss and consult with the Russian authorities on the best way to obtain mining rights for the largest possible mineral resource base.
Geological assessments on the property conducted under Russian resource categories have indicated an historic mineral resource estimate of up to 975 million ounces of Silver in Russian P1 and P2 resources (see Table 1 and note labelled "Historical Resources" in this announcement).
Table 1 : Russian P Resources (i) P1 Resources P2 Resources Tonnes Ag Ore (x 1,000) 7,880 8,880 Grade g/t Ag 1,717 1,891 Tonnes Ag 13,529 16,799 Ounces Ag 435,016,077 540,160,772(i)Note: These resources are considered historical in nature under NI 43-101and are non-compliant to NI 43-101 standards. Information in this table hasbeen taken from Silver Bear's PEA document, Table 5.2, dated September 20,2011 and available at www.sedar.com.
In conjunction with the extension of the Exploration Licence, management believes the Company's progress in developing mining operations at the project could be accelerated by the Company's current re-assessment of a number of high grade near surface mineralized lenses. The Company is investigating the potential to extract the mineralization from these surface lenses through a series of shallow "open pit" type mining methods. Management believes this has the potential to decrease mine development time and capital thereby accelerating the time to production. The Company is currently studying the possibilities of defining an NI 43-101 compliant mineral reserve and resource estimate and Russian C1 and C2 compliant mineral resource estimate that would allow the Company to accelerate its development towards production. The Company hopes to update the market in due course as to the results of its internal work and work with external consultants.
