Sabina Gold & Silver Announces John Wakeford Joins as Advisor/Consultant to Exploration Team

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - June 18, 2015) - Sabina Gold & Silver Corp. (TSX:SBB) ("SBB" or the "Company"), is pleased to announced that John Wakeford, P. Geo. will be joining Sabina as an advisor/consultant to the exploration team.

Mr. Wakeford joined the Sabina team in 2008 as Senior Executive Vice-President, Corporate Development of the Company. In 2012, Mr. Wakeford retired from his office at Sabina and was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Company. This year, he agreed to step down from his board position to once again take a more hands on approach to exploration and discovery at Back River and has joined the Company as a consulting advisor to the exploration team.

John's experience has been invaluable in unlocking the geology both at the Hope Bay belt while at Miramar (now owned by TMAC Resources) and Sabina's Back River Belt after the Company's purchase of the project in 2009.

Mr. Wakeford has spent more than 30 years in worldwide exploration, with extensive experience in Archean greenstone deposits, including the Hemlo and Timmins gold camps. His experience includes 21 years with Noranda Inc., where, among other things, he played a key role in the discovery and evaluation of the Holloway gold deposit.

He brings a unique innovative approach to gold exploration that has proven very successful.

Since acquiring the Back River project in 2009 and under John's exploration leadership, Sabina made three significant new discoveries within a year leading to a rapid resource increase of approximately 325%. The discoveries at Llama, Umwelt and Echo at the Goose property comprise the critical mass of resources to enable the Company to progress towards development and production.

"The bulk of the drilling at Back River over the past 4 years has been directed toward expanding and infill drilling our new discoveries. Much of this work was incorporated into our recently released positive feasibility study on the project," said Mr. Wakeford. "Also, during the resource drilling period, a significant amount of information and data was collected over a short period of time. This information makes it clear that the Back River project and especially the Goose property have only begun to demonstrate the true district scale potential of the project. Sabina has increased its understanding of the deposits leading to improved targeting which we are now taking the time to assess. This ongoing exercise has defined a high number of excellent exploration opportunities for large, near surface targets. I am looking forward to working with Sabina's exploration team to further advance this very prospective belt."

The Back River Gold Belt is located in the West Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, Canada and is situated approximately 75 km from tide water at Bathurst Inlet. The Project is made up of a series of five claim blocks of which only two (Goose and George) have been the primary focus of exploration and resource development to date. The project currently hosts Measured and Indicated resources of 28million tonnes grading 5.87 g/t au for a total of 5.3 million ounces of gold and an additional 7.8 million tonnes grading 7.43 g/t au for a total of 1.9 million ounces of gold.

The Company is evaluating opportunities for initial production on the project that would require reduced capital expenditures while still providing significant gold production. The targets on the Back River belt offer a pipeline for future expansion for Sabina.

QUALITY ASSURANCE

The Mineral Resource Estimates for the Back River Gold Project were prepared by Ms. D. Nussipakynova, P.Geo. and Dr. A. Fowler, Ph.D., MAusIMM, CP (Geo), both from AMC and Qualified Persons under NI 43-101.

The Qualified Persons under NI 43-101 for Sabina Gold & Silver Corp. are Angus Campbell, P.Geo Vice- President, Exploration and Wes Carson, P.Eng Vice-President, Project Development, who have reviewed the content of this news release and approved its dissemination.

SABINA GOLD & SILVER CORP

Sabina Gold & Silver Corp. is an emerging precious metals company with district scale, world class undeveloped assets in one of the world's newest, politically stable mining jurisdictions: Nunavut, Canada.

Sabina has recently released a Feasibility Study on its 100% owned Back River Gold Project which presents a project that has been designed on a fit-for purpose basis, with the potential to produce ~350,000 ounces a year for ~10 years with a rapid payback of 2.2 years. At a US$1,200 gold price and a 0.87 exchange rate, the Study delivers a potential after tax internal rate of return of approximately 22% with an initial CAPEX of $695 million.

In addition to Back River, Sabina also owns a significant silver royalty on Glencore's Hackett River Project. The silver royalty on Hackett River's silver production is comprised of 22.5% of the first 190 million ounces produced and 12.5% of all silver produced thereafter.

The Company expects to end the year with $16 million in cash and equivalents.

This news release has been authorized by the undersigned on behalf of Sabina Gold & Silver Corp.

Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws (the "forward-looking statements"), including our belief as to the extent, results and timing of the FEIS, the results of the FS, the Company's potential plans and operating performance, the estimation of the tonnage, grades and content of deposits, and the extent of the resource and reserves estimates, potential production from and viability of the Company's properties, estimates of future production and operating costs and permitting submissions and timing, the timing and receipt of necessary permits and project approvals for future operations and access to project funding. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the future circumstances, outcomes or results anticipated in or implied by such forward-looking statements will occur or that plans, intentions or expectations upon which the forward-looking statements are based will occur. While we have based these forward-looking statements on our expectations about future events as at the date that such statements were prepared, the statements are not a guarantee that such future events will occur and are subject to risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors which could cause events or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

Such factors and assumptions include, among others, the ability of the Company to raise sufficient funds to implement the FS, the effects of general economic conditions, changes in commodity prices including the gold price assumed in the FS, increases in input costs, uncertainty of production and cost estimates for the project, changing foreign exchange rates, actions by government and regulatory authorities and misjudgments in the course of preparing forward-looking statements. In addition, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Known risk factors include risks associated with exploration and project development; the need for additional financing; the calculation of mineral resources and reserves; operational risks associated with mining and mineral processing; fluctuations in metal prices; title matters; government regulation; obtaining and renewing necessary licences and permits; environmental liability and insurance; reliance on key personnel; the potential for conflicts of interest among certain of our officers or directors; the absence of dividends; currency fluctuations; labour disputes; competition; dilution; the volatility of the our common share price and volume; future sales of shares by existing shareholders; and other risks and uncertainties, including those relating to the Back River Project and general risks associated with the mineral exploration and development industry described in our Annual Information Form, financial statements and MD&A for the fiscal period ended December 31, 2014 filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and available at www.sedar.com. Although we have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors 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, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. We are under no obligation to update or alter any forward-looking statements except as required under applicable securities laws. This news release has been authorized by the undersigned on behalf of Sabina Gold & Silver Corp.