Benzinga | Apr 7, 2021 01:02PM EDT

Solitario Files New NI 43-101 Technical Report For Its Florida Canyon Zinc Project

Solitario Zinc Corp. ("Solitario") (NYSE American:XPL) (TSX:SLR) is pleased to announce that it has filed on SEDAR the independent NI 43-101 Technical Report (the "Report") detailing the updated Mineral Resource Estimate for the Florida Canyon Project located in northern Peru, as described in the Company's news release dated February 23, 2021. The Report was prepared by Gustavson Associates LLC ("Gustavson"), an independent international engineering firm specializing in mining and mineral exploration engineering and evaluation. The Report is available on SEDAR under the Company's profile, and on the Company's website at: Florida Canyon NI 43-101 Technical Report.

The Report filed today incorporates technical information from 39 new drill holes completed at Florida Canyon in 2018 and 2019, along with information from 506 previously drilled core holes. The Report shows a substantial increase in inferred resources dominated by zinc sulfide mineralization. Highlights include the following:

* Inferred zinc-equivalent ("Zn-Eq") sulfide resource up 105% from 2017 estimate.

* Inferred Zn-Eq sulfide-mixed-oxide resource estimate up 64% from 2017 estimate.

* Total contained metal - Measured and Indicated: 0.65 billion pounds Zn-Eq.

* Total contained metal - Inferred: 3.39 billion pounds Zn-Eq at 10.9% Zn-Eq.

* Total contained silver - Inferred: 5.39 million oz.; Meas. & Ind: 1.2 million oz.

Solitario's joint venture partner, Nexa Resources S.A. (NYSE:NEXA, TSX:NEXA) ("Nexa"), completed the new resource estimate incorporating the results of the 2018/2019 drilling program and reinterpreting portions of the previous resource model. Solitario, through the work of Gustavson, verified Nexa's resource estimate. Nexa is the world's fourth largest zinc miner and operates three underground zinc mines in Peru, a major zinc smelter also in Peru and two zinc mines and two zinc smelters in Brazil.

The 2021 Mineral Resource Estimate is a mine plan constrained resource that takes into consideration various NSR cutoff grades and planned dilution, depending on mining method. All 2021 additions to the resource were in the Inferred Resource Category. The table below provides summary estimates for all resource categories.