AbraSilver Resource Corp. announced an expansion of the ongoing Phase III drill program on the Company's wholly-owned Diablillos property in Salta Province, Argentina. The Phase III drill program is now expected to consist of approximately 22,000 metres of diamond drilling, up from 15,000 metres, using two diamond drill rigs.

Phase III drilling is designed to delineate a maiden Mineral Resource estimate on the recently discovered JAC zone, located several hundred metres southwest of the conceptual open pit that constrains the current Mineral Resource estimate on the main Oculto deposit. Additional drill holes are required as mineralization at the JAC zone remains open in most directions. To date, the Company has completed approximately 12,200 metres of drilling, in 60 holes, as part of the Phase III program.

The expanded program is expected to be completed in July 2023, and will be followed by an updated Mineral Resource estimate (MRE) and a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) on the Diablillos project in the fourth quarter of 2023. The main objectives of the expanded Phase III drill program are listed below: Systematically drill off silver-dominant mineralisation at the JAC zone in order to estimate Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources that can be incorporated into the planned MRE and PFS. Delineate the margins of the JAC zone and conduct geotechnical drilling necessary for a conceptual open pit design.

Potentially conduct reconnaissance drilling at other targets on the Diablillos land package, including Fantasma, Alpaca and the Southern Zone. Additionally, the Company announced the commencement of its second drill campaign at the La Coipita Project (La Coipita), located in the San Juan province of Argentina. JAC Target - Exploration Update: The discovery hole at the JAC target was announced in August 2022.

To date, assay results from 30 holes have been received in which multiple high-grade intercepts have been reported. Based on the highly encouraging results, the Company is expanding the Phase III drill program from 15,000 to 22,000 metres. The expanded drill program will have a total cost of approximately USD 6.6 million, of which only USD 3.0 million remains to be spent.

The Company remains well-funded with a current cash balance of approximately CAD 15.0 million. Updated Mineral Resource Estimate & Pre-Feasibility Study: While the maiden Mineral Resource estimate on the JAC target and the Diablillos PFS were originally planned to be completed in the first half of 2023, the additional drilling at JAC, which is expected to positively impact the economics of the project, will take longer than expected and will not be completed until July 2023. As a result, the updated MRE and PFS are now expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2023 and will incorporate the assay results from the expanded 22,000m Phase III drill program.

The Company continues to progress key aspects of the PFS, including advancing additional metallurgical testwork, optimizing process design and engineering, equipment sizing, advancing renewable power generation alternatives, and updating capital and operating cost estimates with market-sourced quotations. Commencement of Drilling at La Coipita Project: The La Coipita project is located in the San Juan Province, Argentina, in a geological setting similar to world-class deposits in the same belt, including the Filo del Sol and Los Azules projects, where porphyry style mineralisation is found immediately beneath epithermal mineralization. On June 28, 2022, the Company announced the discovery of a significant new copper-gold-molybdenum porphyry system at La Coipita based on results from two initial deep drill holes.

The discovery hole, DDHC 22-002, returned broad intervals of copper-gold-molybdenum porphyry mineralization including 226 metres grading 0.34% copper, 0.07 g/t gold and 66 ppm molybdenum. The hole also encountered a separate interval of 146 metres grading 0.27% copper and 75 ppm molybdenum, with the hole ending in mineralization at a down-hole depth of 1,202.5 metres. This year's follow-up drill campaign is expected to consist of one deep hole (approximately 1,400m), targeting the anticipated higher-grade zone of the porphyry system intercepted in hole DDHC 22-002.

Drilling has now commenced and is expected to be completed in April 2023. Quartz-veinlet intensity (from 1 to >10 per m) and presence of molybdenum (as molybdenite) indicate a potential dome-like feature that is believed to likely be centred above the deeper copper system and will be targeted by this year's drilling. QA/QC and Core Sampling Protocols: AbraSilver applies industry standard exploration methodologies and techniques, and all drill core samples are collected under the supervision of the Company's geologists in accordance with industry practices.

Drill core is transported from the drill platform to the logging facility where drill data is compared and verified with the core in the trays. Thereafter, it is logged, photographed, and split by diamond saw prior to being sampled. Samples are then bagged, and quality control materials are inserted at regular intervals; these include blanks and certified reference materials as well as duplicate core samples which are collected in order to measure sample representivity.

Groups of samples are then placed in large bags which are sealed with numbered tags in order to maintain a chain-of-custody during the transport of the samples from the project site to the laboratory. All samples are received by the SGS offices in Salta who then dispatch the samples to the SGS preparation facility in San Juan. From there, the prepared samples are sent to the SGS laboratory in Lima, Peru where they are analyzed.

All samples are analyzed using a multi-element technique consisting of a four acid digestion followed by ICP/AES detection, and gold is analyzed by 50g Fire Assay with an AAS finish. Silver results greater than 100g/t are reanalyzed using four acid digestion with an ore grade AAS finish.