Sunshine Silver Expands Silver Valley Position 60% and Launches 45,000-Metre District Drill Program

A 60% land expansion changes the scale of Sunshine’s Silver Valley footprint

Sunshine Silver Mining & Refining has materially widened its operating canvas in Idaho’s Silver Valley. The company announced September 21 that it added approximately 14,100 acres of mineral rights, increasing its consolidated position by about 60% to roughly 38,000 acres.

The expansion makes Sunshine the largest mineral-rights holder in the district, according to the company, and gives its exploration team substantially more contiguous ground to evaluate around the historic Sunshine Mine. The update shifts the exploration story from a mine-focused program toward a broader district-scale strategy.

That larger footprint matters because Sunshine can now apply one geological framework across a wider package rather than evaluating isolated parcels. Modern geophysics, geochemistry, surface mapping and drilling can be used together to prioritize targets across the expanded land position.

Source: [1]

A 45,000-metre surface program creates a second exploration engine

Alongside the land expansion, Sunshine launched a multi-year surface exploration program totaling approximately 45,000 metres of planned drilling. The first three drill-ready areas are East Sunshine, Rock Creek and Pine Creek, with surface drilling expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026.

East Sunshine is the highest-priority near-mine target and sits immediately east of the Sunshine Mine along strike from known mineralization. Rock Creek and Pine Creek were identified through the company’s 2025 reconnaissance campaign and broaden the program beyond the established Sunshine vein system.

The planned surface work gives Sunshine two complementary drilling tracks: district exploration from surface and resource-focused drilling underground. That combination can generate new discovery targets while the mine team continues to improve confidence in the known resource base.

The target pipeline is backed by a large 2025 field dataset

Sunshine’s 2025 reconnaissance campaign logged 322 man-days of fieldwork, collected 128 rock samples and completed 2,935 soil samples across previously underexplored parts of the land package. The company says that work identified multiple drill-ready targets and helped define the initial sequencing for the new surface program.

The amount of early-stage field information is a useful bridge between land acquisition and drilling. Rather than expanding acreage and starting from zero, Sunshine is moving into the new campaign with geochemical and geological data already in hand for several priority areas.

As drilling advances, the company can use results from the first target areas to refine later phases of the 45,000-metre program and compare near-mine geology with mineralized trends elsewhere across the Silver Valley package.

Source: [1]

Mine drilling and district exploration are now advancing in parallel

Sunshine’s separate 50,000-metre underground infill program at the Sunshine Mine remains underway. The work is designed to support the planned 2027 feasibility study and evaluate opportunities for additional near-mine resource growth. Drilling has moved into downshaft areas, with additional results expected during the fourth quarter.

That creates a broader 2026 work program than a single exploration announcement might suggest. One team is building confidence and geological detail inside the mine footprint, while the new surface campaign opens a much larger district position to systematic testing.

For Sunshine, the September 21 update therefore adds both scale and activity: more ground, three initial surface targets and a 45,000-metre program alongside the underground drilling already in progress.