Sabina Announces High Grade Drill Results from Umwelt Deposit at the Back River Gold Project, Nunavut

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Aug. 9, 2012) - Sabina Gold & Silver Corp. (TSX:SBB) is pleased to announce new assay results from holes drilled at the Umwelt deposit as part of the 2012 exploration program at its 100% owned Back River Gold Project in Nunavut, Canada.

Work at Back River in 2012 is heavily focussed on infill, geotechnical and extension drilling at the Llama, Umwelt and George deposits as well as testing targets proximal to the existing deposits on the Goose property in support of the upcoming Back River Pre-Feasibility Study.

An additional goal of the 2012 exploration program is to test high priority shallow regional targets for new deposits on the George and Boulder claim blocks that could be of significant importance to the proposed Back River operations.

At Umwelt, Hole 12GSE217 returned 51.93 g/t Au over 16.10 m effectively extending the high grade core of the G2 Zone 100 m down plunge. This intercept is at a vertical depth of 700 m and targeted the gap between the current resources and hole 12GSE173 (9.50 g/t Au over 7.15 m) reported in June 2012. The G2 Zone (good grade, good width), first identified in 2011, forms a part of the growing underground resource at Umwelt.

As part of the Umwelt geotechnical program, hole 12GSE214 was drilled oblique to section and intersected 18.81 g/t over 21.90 m in the west limb at the bottom of the pit shell. Further analysis of this intersection will be completed in order to incorporate any appropriate impact on existing resources.

"Results from Umwelt continue to demonstrate the potential of this deposit," said Rob Pease, President & CEO. "We have now traced the mineralization over 300 metres down plunge of the known resources, and world-class results like those from hole 12GSE217 continue to increase our confidence in the high-grade and continuous nature of the deposit. We are very excited to learn how these results and the balance of the 2012 program will factor in to our anticipated resource update and 2013 pre-feasibility study for our wholly-owned Back River project."

Boulder Property Discovery

Exploration drilling has been completed on the Boulder Property located just 15 km north of the Goose Property and along the proposed winter road between George and Goose. This property has seen only limited exploration work in the past and is known to be underlain by highly folded iron formation similar to that of the Goose property. Historical prospecting has highlighted a number of areas with encouraging results and this work coupled with the company's highly successful exploration tool box has defined a significant number of high quality targets. The first hole of the program 12BRP001 testing one of these targets returned 4.05 g/t Au over 11.00 m including 5.78 g/t Au over 6.0 m in an extensive thickness of altered and locally sulphidized iron formation. The intersection is 120 metres vertically below a 1993 historic hole, 93P003, that returned 3.91 g/t Au over 12.15 metres. Further drilling has been completed to understand the controls and extent of this mineralization and assay results are pending.

George Property Fold Forest Discovery

Exploration drilling on the George property continues to evaluate shallow, near surface targets that could positively impact future operations on this property. Significant new results have been received from the Fold Forest area, where holes 12GRL046 and 12GRL047 have encountered broad zones of mineralized oxide iron formation in a thickened antiform structure that can be traced for at least a 1.0 km strike length. Hole 12GRL046 intersected 5.92 g/t Au over 5.00 m including 11.04 g/t Au over 1.0 m within a broader 32.75 m wide interval of highly anomalous gold enriched iron formation. Hole 12GRL047, 300 m north of 12GRL046 intersected a 66.5 m wide zone of anomalously gold enriched iron formation including 7.37 g/t Au over 2.0 m and 5.79 g/t Au over 1.0 m. The iron formations encountered at Fold Forest are significantly thicker than the narrow units that are common at George and coupled with the sulphide mineralization, stratigraphic orientation, strength of alteration and density of veining offer good potential for a large thick deposit to be found in the system.

"These new discoveries continue to demonstrate the tremendous upside potential of the Back River Project to host additional gold deposits," said Rob Pease, President & CEO. "Our first hole at Boulder and the substantial thicknesses of iron formation that underlie this property suggests that there is much potential for a new deposit to be found." "Similarly, our work at George continues to discover interesting mineralization that could enhance the future operation planned there. These targets will be followed up next year."

The 2012 exploration program is expected to continue until the end of September with a combination of extension, resource conversion and geotechnical drilling on the Goose and George properties. The resource conversion and geotechnical drilling are intended to provide the technical information necessary to complete a Pre-Feasibility Study as part of Sabina's follow-up to its positive Preliminary Economic Assessment announced earlier this year.

Changes to Management Team

Sabina is pleased to announce that Mr. Angus Campbell will be joining the company as Vice President of Exploration. Angus will be replacing Mr. Peter Manojlovic who has left the Company.

Angus has a strong and diverse background in global mineral exploration. For the past several years he was Exploration Manager for Chile with BHP Billiton. He brings to Sabina a broad range of experience in green field and brown field exploration initiatives and projects, plus a deep understanding of diverse cultural and team environments and large project management. He also brings experience in managing health and safety, commercial risk and due diligence issues. Angus was a member of the Spence deposit discovery team who were honoured with the PDAC's Bill Denis Award in 1998.

Rob Pease commented: "We would like to thank Peter for his contribution to Sabina over the years and wish him the best of luck in his future endeavours. We look forward to welcoming Angus whose experience will help guide the Back River project through the next phase of advanced exploration and development, and whose project evaluation skillset will be vital as Sabina charts its long-term strategy."

Quality Assurance

True widths for the intercepts reported in this news release have not yet been determined.

The Qualified Person under NI 43-101 is Kaesy Gladwin, P. Geo, Senior Geologist for Sabina Gold & Silver Corp., who has approved this release as it pertains to the Umwelt results and Stanley Clemmer, P. Geo, Project Manager for Sabina Gold & Silver Corp, who has approved this release as it pertains to the George and Boulder results.

Diamond drill core was sent to TSL Laboratories in Saskatoon, Sask. Quality control is monitored on a continual basis and utilizes a system of standards, blanks and duplicates to ensure analytical accuracy. The protocols and procedures used in 2012 are the same as those used in earlier campaigns by Sabina Gold & Silver Corp. and have been deemed appropriate in the Company's 43-101 compliant resource reports.

SABINA GOLD & SILVER CORP.

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

Sabina's primary assets, all located in Nunavut, consist of: the Back River Gold Project, currently in the pre-feasibility and permitting phase; the Wishbone Claims, a vastly prospective grass roots project; and the Hackett River Silver Royalty, a silver production royalty on Xstrata Zinc's Hackett River project comprising 22.5% of the first 190 million ounces produced and 12.5% of all the silver produced thereafter.

The Company had cash of $147.4 million at March 31, 2012 and added $34 million to the treasury in June 2012 after completing a financing.

All news releases can be found on the Company's website at www.sabinagoldsilver.com or on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Forward Looking Statements

Statements relating to mineral resource estimates at Llama, Umwelt, George and Goose and the expected impact of these mineral resources are forward-looking statements within the meaning of securities legislation of certain Provinces in Canada. Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", 'projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Information inferred from the interpretation of drilling results may also be deemed to be forward looking statements, as it constitutes a prediction of what might be found to be present when and if a project is actually developed. These forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation: risks related to fluctuations in metal prices; uncertainties related to raising sufficient financing to fund the planned work in a timely manner and on acceptable terms; changes in planned work resulting from weather, logistical, technical or other factors; the possibility that results of work will not fulfill expectations and realize the perceived potential of the Company's properties; risk of accidents, equipment breakdowns and labour disputes or other unanticipated difficulties or interruptions; the possibility of cost overruns or unanticipated expenses in the work program; the risk of environmental contamination or damage resulting from Sabina's operations and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in Sabina's Annual Report for the year ended December 31, 2011.

Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of Sabina's management on the date the statements are made. Sabina undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements should management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.

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

Rob Pease, President & CEO

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