6,000 Meter Phase II Drill Program Commences On Hercules Silver Property

TORONTO - Hercules Silver Corp. has mobilized an Atlas Copco CS-14 core drilling rig and commenced drilling the first hole in an extensive 6,000 meter drill program at the Hercules Silver Property in western Idaho. Timberline Drilling of Hayden, Idaho has been contracted to carry out the program, which will consist of step-out holes designed to test for extensions of historical mineralization, verify previous historical drilling and test a series of new targets generated by greenfields exploration.

Since acquiring the project the Company has consolidated what was historically a fragmented land package, with several different companies holding different parts of the system throughout the 1970's-1980's. An 18-month-long greenfields targeting program, consisting of mapping, soil sampling, and rock sampling, has since revealed the presence of a large zoned system, with many portions remaining to be tested, including a potentially large-scale copper-silver-gold porphyry feeder target. The Phase II drill program will not only explore multiple new surface targets but will also test the system with angled holes up to 550 meters long, significantly deeper than the average 92-meter length of historical drill holes. The drilling will be done using triple-tube barrels for enhanced recovery and a core orientation tool for attaining the strike and dip of mineralization. This will not only increase the probability of success but will also improve the efficiency of drilling operations overall.

Chris Paul, CEO and Director, said, "We are excited to be underway on our first core drilling program at Hercules; a long-awaited milestone and the culmination of almost two years of extensive surface exploration. Exploration technology has advanced significantly since the 1980s, when economic studies were last underway following the completion of over 300 historical drill holes. At that time, a crash in the price of silver had forced the previous operators to put small-scale open pit development plans on hold. More than 30 years later, we've significantly increased the Property holdings, carried out modern, systematic exploration on the consolidated land package, and identified the presence of a much larger zoned system. Our 3D geological model suggests that the historical drilling only tapped into the shallow and distal parts of the system. We are now entering potentially the most exciting period in the history of Hercules Silver, and an important step towards delivering significant value for our shareholders."