Metallic Minerals Begins 2017 Field Exploration Program at Keno Silver Project

Metallic Minerals Corp. is pleased to announce the commencement of the 2017 field exploration season at its flagship Keno Silver Project, a highly-prospective, district scale, brownfields exploration property consisting of 112.5 square kilometres in the historic Keno Hill Silver District of Canada's Yukon Territory.

The first phase of the program has been designed to highlight the most prospective targets for new discoveries and to drill test the highest-priority targets later this summer. A comprehensive geologic examination on the lesser explored portions of the property will also be completed including geophysics, surface geochemical sampling and stratigraphic mapping.

Over 200 million ounces of silver have been mined in the Keno Hill silver district over the past 100 years at an average grade exceeding 1,300 grams/tonne, making it one of the largest and richest silver producing districts in the world. Keno type silver deposits consist of high-grade silver-lead-zinc veins typically 1-5 metres in width, grading from 200 g/t to over 5,000 g/t silver¹. The largest individual deposits in the district, which range from 10 million to 100 million ounces of contained silver, are associated with northeast trending, southeast dipping fault/vein structures which form major ore shoots in the preferred quartzite and greenstone host rocks.

Metallic Minerals Keno Silver Project covers the eastern portion of the district adjacent to, and on-trend with, Alexco Resource Corp, one of the highest-grade primary silver operations in the world². There are twelve known mineralized trends in the Keno Hill silver district, eight of which continue across Metallic Minerals' land package and occur in the same geologic settings that host the largest deposits in the district. The Keno Silver Project has seven historic producing mines with some of the highest grades in the district including four with average grades of over 5,000 g/t silver¹. While several recent major discoveries have been made in the Keno Hill silver district, the eastern portion of the district has seen little modern exploration due to the longstanding, fragmented, private land ownership structure, which has now been largely consolidated by Metallic Minerals.

Metallic Minerals Chairman & CEO, Greg Johnson, stated, "We have assembled a highly experienced technical team with specific expertise in high-grade vein systems. Our technical team compiled and reviewed decades of historic and modern geological data on the region and property in developing the 2017 program. The first phase of work will consist of targeted geophysical and geochemical surveys, stratigraphic mapping, and trenching to further refine the identified priority targets. Phase 1 drilling is expected to commence upon completion of this initial exploration work and will focus on testing down-dip and along-strike extensions of previously identified mineralization along the known mineralized trends, including at some of the historic producing mines on the property. Additionally, the Company plans to explore in other areas that show significant potential to host Keno type deposits but that may not have seen historic focus due to soil and vegetation cover. The Phase 1 drill program is anticipated to consist of 1000-1500 metres of drilling."

In a news release dated March 6, 2017, Metallic Minerals provided a detailed overview of the 12 identified exploration target areas on the Keno Silver Project based on the winter compilation program, including specific geology, mineralization and historic activity. The initial focus of exploration in 2017 will be at the Homestake, Silver Queen, Caribou and Faith targets, where the Company expects to conduct additional soil sampling, trenching, and geophysics prior to the Phase 1 drilling. In parallel, other target areas on the Keno Silver Project will be the focus of geologic mapping and surface sampling.

Mr. Johnson further stated, "We are excited to have the opportunity to have assembled such a prospective block of brownfields exploration ground in one of the world's most prolific, high-grade silver districts. This year's exploration program will be some of the first systematic, modern exploration in the eastern portion of the Keno Hill silver district. We look forward to providing updates from the program results, as they become available."

References

Quality Assurance / Quality Control

Analytical work was done by Bureau Veritas Commodities Canada Ltd. with sample prep and geochemical analysis in Vancouver, British Columbia. Each rock (grab) sample was analyzed for silver using a 30-gram fire assay fusion with a gravimetric finish (FA530-Ag). Gold was assayed using a 30-gram fire assay fusion with atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) finish (FA430). In addition, 34 other elements were analyzed using an Aqua Regia digestion with inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and inductively coupled Plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) (AQ-270). Over-limit lead and zinc samples have been analyzed by ICP MA410. All results have passed the QAQC screening by the lab.

Qualified Person

Scott Petsel, P.Geo., Vice President, Exploration and an employee of Metallic Minerals Corp., is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Petsel has reviewed the scientific and technical information in this news release and approves the disclosure contained herein. Mr. Petsel has reviewed the results of the sampling program and confirmed that all procedures, protocols and methodologies used in the drill program conform to industry standards.

Source: https://www.metallic-minerals.com/