Resumption Of Construction Activities Update At Lindero Gold Project

VANCOUVER, BC - Fortuna Silver Mines, Inc. provided an update on the resumption of its construction activities at the Lindero gold Project, located in the Province of Salta, Argentina. The new construction and commissioning plans prioritize the completion of solution handling, ADR and SART plants with the objective of producing first dore in the third quarter of 2020.  With the advanced stage of commissioning of the primary and secondary crushing circuits, crushed coarse ore is scheduled to be placed on the leach pad for cyanide irrigation starting in July. This plan contemplates by-passing the tertiary HPGR crushing and agglomeration circuits temporarily, for a period of four months, until the fourth quarter of 2020. Commercial production is expected to start in the first quarter of 2021.

In March, the Government of Argentina declared a period of mandatory national “social isolation” in relation to COVID-19, effective until March 31, 2020.  This period of isolation has been subsequently extended to May 10, 2020. Construction was temporarily halted at Lindero and a reduced task force remains on site to maintain critical activities including security and environmental monitoring over the extended isolation period.

On April 3, 2020, the Government of Argentina included mining and related activities within the list of essential industries and services permitted to operate during the mandatory social isolation period.  To resume operations, companies are required to submit to the provincial authorities a Minimum Emergency Operations Program (MEOP). On April 28, 2020, the Company submitted and received approval to resume operations under its MEOP.  The construction plan has been revised to implement sanitary protocols for the prevention and handling of COVID-19 cases, which include a reduced on-site workforce in support of social distancing measures. Mobilization to the project site is planned to take place during the second half of May 2020 in order to resume construction activities.  The Company has modified its construction and commissioning plans to mitigate risks to the timeline and budget associated with a reduced workforce, limited foreign vendor support, and limitations on local travel. As of March 19, 2020, the date of the Lindero demobilization, the project was 94 percent complete.

Although HPGR pre-commissioning has been successfully completed, commissioning will take longer because we will be utilizing remote assistance from the foreign vendor.

The crushed coarse ore from the primary and secondary crushers to be placed on the leach pad during the ramp-up phase represents only approximately 12 percent of the projected ore scheduled to be placed on the leach pad in a standard year of full production. Preliminary metallurgical column test results for coarse ore indicates gold recoveries of 45 to 50 percent compared to our feasibility study projections of 78 percent recovery for tertiary crushed ore over a 90-day period.

Open pit mining is planned to gradually resume in July 2020.  During the period from July to December 2020, an estimated 1.7 million to 1.9 million tonnes of ore are scheduled to be placed on the leach pad with an average gold grade of 1.00 g/t to 1.10 g/t. The estimated stripping ratio during this period is 0.68 to 0.75.

Between 25,000 to 28,000 ounces of gold dore are scheduled to be produced for the period of September to December 31, 2020.