Silver Bear Announces Facilities Agreement Amendments and Acquires X-Ray Transmission Ore Sorting System

TORONTO, Dec. 24, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Silver Bear Resources Plc (“Silver Bear” or the “Company”) (TSX: SBR) announces that it has amended its existing facilities agreement (the “Facilities Agreement”) with Inflection Management Corporation Limited (“Inflection”), a major shareholder of the Company, and Unifirm Limited (“Unifirm”), an affiliate of A.B. Aterra Resources Ltd. (“Aterra”), also a major shareholder of the Company. The amendments to the Facilities Agreement (the “Facilities Agreement Amendments”): (i) provide for two new term loan facility tranches of US$2 million each (“Tranche H” and “Tranche I”) for an aggregate of US$4 million, which will become due and repayable on July 31, 2021; and (ii) extend the first interest period under the Facilities Agreement and revise the interest capitalization date to January 1, 2020. Funds from Tranche H and Tranche I will be used to acquire X-Ray Transmission (“XRT”) processing equipment and for flotation line construction. The Facilities Agreement Amendments have been conditionally approved by the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Vadim Ilchuk, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented: “The addition of Tranches H and I to our existing Facilities Agreement provides the Company with the financing to add (1) the XRT processing technology to our processing line, which is expected to improve overall process plant efficiency and to lower operational costs; and (2) flotation equipment to deal with the processing of primary ore.  We would like to thank both Inflection and Aterra for their ongoing support of the Mangazeisky silver project. This new financing gives the Company the financial flexibility to further enhance the project economics and will ensure that the equipment required will be transported down the 2020 winter road. The Company expects to provide an update on the implementation of the XRT process in the first quarter of 2020.”

The Facilities Agreement Amendments are a “related party transaction” under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 – Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (“MI 61-101”) because Inflection and Aterra, an affiliate of Unifirm, are related parties to the Company, as its major shareholders. Pursuant to Section 5.7(f) of MI 61-101, the Company is exempt from obtaining approval of the Company’s minority shareholders as a result of the Facilities Agreement Amendments being an amendment to a loan to the Company (obtained from a related party on reasonable commercial terms that are not less advantageous to the Company than if such credit facility was obtained through an arm’s length lender) that has no equity or voting component. The Company will file a material change report in respect of the Facilities Agreement Amendments. However, the material change report will be filed less than 21 days prior to the implementation of the Facilities Agreement Amendments, which is consistent with market practice and the Company deems reasonable in the circumstances.

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 July 1, 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.

Cautionary Notes

This release and subsequent oral statements made by and on behalf of the Company may contain forward-looking statements, which reflect management's expectations. Wherever possible, words such as "intends", "expects", "scheduled", "estimates", "anticipates", "believes" and similar expressions or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, have been used to identify these forward-looking statements. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this release reflect management's current beliefs based upon information currently available to management and based upon what management believes to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot be certain that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. A number of factors could cause events and achievements to differ materially from the results expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Such risk factors include, but are not limited to, the risk factors identified by the Company in its continuous disclosure filings filed from time to time on SEDAR. These factors should be considered carefully and prospective investors should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements necessarily involve significant known and unknown risks, assumptions and uncertainties that may cause the Company's actual results, events, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although the Company has attempted to identify important risks and factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors and risks that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, prospective investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this release, and the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances, unless otherwise required by law.

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