Solitario Reports Significant Initial Drilling Results on Its Mt. Hamilton Gold Project

Solitario Exploration & Royalty Corp. XPL announces significant initial drilling results on its advanced Mt. Hamilton project situated at the southern end of the prolific Battle Mountain gold trend in eastern Nevada. The project is a joint venture between Solitario and Ely Gold and Minerals Inc.. The recently completed eleven-hole, 6,250-foot core drilling program that began in late-November 2010 was designed to provide feasibility-level geotechnical, metallurgical, hydro-geologic and additional resource information at the Centennial gold deposit. A Feasibility Study for production at Centennial is targeted for completion in the third quarter of 2011. The first three core holes reported above were drilled to provide material for additional metallurgical testing in areas of the Centennial deposit that had not been adequately evaluated for feasibility level study. Comprehensive metallurgical testing to date has projected overall gold recoveries of approximately 75% by standard heap leach processing. Three other holes were designed strictly for geotechnical information to determine pit wall stability parameters for the feasibility study. These holes will not be assayed as they did not penetrate the main ore horizon. The remaining five holes were designed to further assess areas within the deposit that were not adequately drill-tested or to expand mineralization.