Hercules Silver Corp. reported that it 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 Company's wholly-owned 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 in 2021, 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. Hercules Adit/Frogpond Zones: Testing extensions of the Hercules Adit and Frogpond Zones along strike and at depth, including vertical structures and high-grade shoots which may have been missed by the vertical historical drilling. Two holes will test for the extension of a mineralized shoot that appears to have been down-dropped at the east end of the Frogpond Zone and partially intersected by historical drillhole 83-5. Hole 83-5 intersected 25.9 meters of 85 g/t Ag, 1.70% Pb and 2.09% Zn1 from 86.9 to 112.8 meters and remains open at depth and to the east.

Verifying and potentially extending silver mineralization intersected at depth on the west end of the Frogpond Zone. Historical drillhole 83-16, one of the deepest holes drilled on the Property, was halted due to caving ground at 420 feet (128 meters), with the final 7.6 meters grading 214 g/t Ag, 0.13% Pb and 0.17% Zn1. Re-entry at the time was unsuccessful, and the deep intercept was not further tested.

Haystack Zone: Testing mineralization discovered during a 2022 surface rock chip sampling program on the west side of the Haystack Zone, which is associated with a near-surface vertical chargeability anomaly. Testing a separate zone of mineralization at the east end of the Haystack Zone, associated with a similar near-surface vertical chargeability anomaly. A single vertical hole in the area, RDH-7, returned 16.8 meters grading 149 g/t Ag, 0.13% Pb and 0.1% Zn1.

The planned hole depth is 550 meters, to also allow testing of the large-scale chargeability anomaly. Hinge Zone Two holes within the folded hinge area of the Hercules Rhyolite, with strong rock chip sample grades and a near-surface chargeability anomaly. The holes will be drilled in opposite directions, to determine the dip of the mineralization.

The eastward hole will be extended to 400 meters, to also test the large-scale chargeability. A potential third hole will be drilled into the fold hinge, from a quartz-alunite-dickite-pyrophyllite altered breccia zone (Photo 1) located to the west of all historical drilling. This is a unique advanced argillic alteration assemblage which typically forms a cap over epithermal and porphyry type mineralization and is not seen elsewhere on the Property.

Drilling underneath this advanced argillic breccia may lead to a discovery of new mineralization. Belmont Zone: Up to 4 holes fanned from a single pad at the Belmont Zone, to test various mineralized structures associated with high-grade rock chip samples and a 1970 historical drill hole (DDH-6) which intersected 83 g/t Ag and 0.25% Zn over 20 metersError! Bookmark not defined.

from surface and 93 g/t Ag over 8 metersError! Bookmark not defined. deeper in the hole.

Porphyry Copper-Silver-Gold Targets: A 400-meter hole planned in the eastern part of the Belmont Zone to test the southern end of the large-scale chargeability anomaly. Certain mineral systems, including porphyry coppers, are often surrounded by high-chargeability clay-sericite-pyrite halos. The hole is designed to test both the high-chargeability zone as well as potentially higher-temperature parts of the system underneath and/or adjacent to it.

Metheny Zone: A 550-meter hole planned at the Metheny Zone, to test a quartz-feldspar porphyry with dimensions of approximately 850 m x 550 m on surface, associated with strong copper-silver-gold grades and lenses of skarn-type mineralization (Photos 2-7). The Metheny Zone lies east of the limit of the 2022 3D IP survey, however the large-scale chargeability anomaly is centered immediately west of - and likely projects into - the Metheny Zone. Lightning Zone: Two 500-meter holes testing a strongly-altered hydrothermal breccia pipe, the Lightning Breccia, which may be a key indicator of a buried porphyry copper system.

The Lightning breccia consists of hydrothermal quartz/silica clasts, brought up from depth within a surrounding matrix that's rich in oxidized sulfide mineralization (goethite) (Photos 8-12). The Lightning breccia is associated with a strong copper-gold-silver (+bismuth-tellurium-selenium) geochemical anomaly and has never been drilled. The quartz clasts may represent fragments of a silicified carapace (cap of an intrusion), which were transported upwards during an explosive brecciation event.

The pipe may therefore root down into a mineralized porphyry at depth.