Silver Bear Announces the Resumption of the Year-End 2021 Audit and Appointment of Three New Directors to the Company’s Board

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Silver Bear Resources Plc ("Silver Bear" or the "Company") (TSX: SBR) is pleased to announce that the Company’s auditor BDO LLP (UK) (“BDO”) has resumed the Company’s audit for the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2021. In addition, the Company has appointed three new directors to its Board, Messrs. Nathan Hunt, and Nikolay Grigoriev and Dr. Alexey Kostin, with immediate effect. With the new appointments the Board now consists of six (6) directors of which four (4) are independent.

Vadim Ilchuk, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented: “I am delighted to welcome Nathan, Nikolay and Alexey to the Silver Bear Board. The addition of the three new directors will add a level of expertise in Canadian Eurasian international business relations, and in mining and geological capability, which will make an excellent addition to the Board particularly as the Company advances its exploration programs.

Further to our press release dated 16 March 2022, BDO has confirmed that it will work to finalize the year-end 2021 financial audit. As such, the Company is working to complete the outstanding regulatory filings that are required to lift the cease trade order implemented by the Ontario Securities Commission. As indicated previously, the Company continues to work on the evolving situation associated with the sanctions imposed on Russia, and the resulting effects it has had on the Company.”

Mr. Hunt has served on the Board of Directors of the Canada Eurasia Russia Business Association (“CERBA”) since 1996 and was Chair of CERBA from 2009 to 2013. Mr. Hunt has over 25 years of international business experience involved in the import of food products from North America to Russia. Mr. Hunt was President of his own consulting firm Skylight Inc. and the Accredited Representative of the US Meat Export Federation in Russia. Mr. Hunt graduated summa cum laude / Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University in 1988 with a degree in Russian and East European Studies.

Mr. Grigoriev, a retired mining engineer has over 30 years of mining geological experience. Between 1973 to 1994, his career spanned from geologist to Chief Geologist through to Deputy General Director of the geological survey expedition in the Magadan Region of Far East Russia. He has discovered a number of gold and silver deposits in the Magadan region that are currently under development. From 1994 to 2004, Mr. Grigoriev served as Deputy Director-Chief Geologist Omsukchan Gold Mining Company. From 2004 through 2021, he served as Deputy General Director, Kupol and General Director, Dvoinoy, Kinross’s Russian subsidiaries. Mr. Grigoriev graduated from Irkutsk state University, Russia in 1973 as geological engineer.

Dr. Kostin, has over 30 years of mining geological experience, since 1980 to 2022 he worked at the Diamond and Precious Metal Geology Institute, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Yakutsk, Russia; where from 2007 to present, he is Chief of the Laboratory of Geology and Mineralogy of Precious Metals. In 2013, Dr. Kostin received the “Discover of the Mineral Deposits” award by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology, Russian Federation. Dr. Kostin’s PhD in Geo-Mineralogical Science is from Moscow State University. He also earned a doctorate degree (D.Sc.) in Central Geological Research Institute for Nonferrous and Precious Metals (TsNIGRI), Moscow.

About Silver Bear

Silver Bear (TSX: SBR) is focused on the development of its wholly-owned Mangazeisky Silver Project, covering a licence area of approximately 570 km² that includes the high-grade Vertikalny deposit (amongst the highest- grade silver deposits in the world), located 400 km north of Yakutsk in the Republic of Sakha within the Russian Federation. As of April 2018, the Company attained first silver production as a result of commissioning activities and on 1 July 2019 the Company achieved full commercial production. Other information relating to Silver Bear is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com as well as on the Company's website at www.silverbearresources.com.