Bongará Zinc Project - Peru

With five years of outstanding drilling results at the Bongará project in Peru, Solitario and its partner and project manager, Votorantim Metais (“Votorantim”), announced additional excellent surface and underground drilling results on its high-grade Bongará zinc project in early March 2012. Included in these results are underground drill holes V-245 that intersected 5.8 meters grading 36.61% zinc+lead (“Zn+Pb”) and 53.48 gpt silver, V-255 that intersected 15.5 meters grading 17.21% Zn+Pb and 41.94 gpt silver and V-257 that intersected 31.4 meters grading 10.86% Zn+Pb and 31.4 gpt silver. In total, 17 out of the 19 newly reported drill holes intersected significant mineralization. Two surface drill holes were also completed since the last release.

Underground Drilling
The underground drilling program began in the fourth quarter of 2011 and will continue through much of 2012. In total, 67 core holes are planned from eight different underground drill stations. The 11 best intercepts in this round of drilling are presented in the table below.



Votorantim continues to aggressively advance the project on a number of fronts, including detailed reserve drilling, additional step-out drilling, road construction, new plans for underground tunneling, additional metallurgical testing, and other pre-feasibility related work.

The Bongará project hosts the high-grade Florida Canyon zinc deposit where zinc mineralization has been intersected over a four square kilometer area. Underground drill stations are situated about 40 meters apart and are designed to drill test in detail approximately 350 meters of strike length of the San Jorge zone, situated in the southwestern part of the Florida Canyon deposit. Anywhere from 4 to 12 core holes will be fan-drilled from each drill station. A complete listing of recent assay results are appended below and a drill hole map can be accessed by clicking here.

The program is managed and entirely funded by Solitario's joint venture partner Votorantim Metais (“Votorantim”). The deposit is open to expansion in all directions. Currently there are two underground and two surface core rigs operating.

Surface Drilling
Surface drilling is focused on the Karen-Milagros zone located in the northeastern part of the Florida Canyon mineralized system. After a hiatus in surface drilling activities, surface drilling was re-initiate and assay results from two core holes have been received since the last news release. Drill hole V-250 intersected 3.4 meters grading 7.84% zinc, 1.40% lead and 8.91 gpt silver. Drill hole V-259 intersected 2.7 meters of 2.4% zinc. Votorantim is planning on completing approximately 50 surface core holes through the remainder of 2012.

New Underground Tunnel Planned – Road Construction to Continue
Votorantim is planning a new tunnel to access the Karen-Milagros zone. Planning and permitting for the tunnel is in its initial stages and the start of construction will occur in 2013. Upon completion of the new Karen-Milagros tunnel, detailed underground drilling will take place similar to the program currently being conducted on the San Jorge zone. In addition, continued road construction is planned throughout the remainder of 2012. The road is being permitted and approved in stages. Ultimately, 32 kilometers of road are planned to access the San Jorge zone of the Florida Canyon deposit.

Bongará Joint Venture Agreement with Votorantim Metais
Votorantim Metais can earn up to a 70% interest in the project by committing to place the project into production based upon a positive feasibility study. After earning 70%, Votorantim Metais has further agreed to finance Solitario's 30% participating interest for construction. Solitario will repay the loan facility through 50% of its net cash flow distributions.

About Votorantim Metais
Votorantim Metais belongs to a privately held Brazilian business conglomerate that is a leader in every market segment in which it operates, including cement, pulp and paper, metals, chemicals, orange juice, and finance. The metals business division accounted for 29% of revenues from production of zinc, nickel, steel and aluminum. Votorantim Metais is the world's fifth largest primary zinc producer with three operating zinc smelters and two operating zinc mines. It owns the Cajamarquilla zinc smelter and is the majority shareholder of Milpo, both located in Peru. Votorantim Metais also has operations in the United States and China.