Mr. Shawn Khunkhun reports

DOLLY VARDEN SILVER ANNOUNCES 2025 EXPLORATION PROGRAM FOCUSED ON HIGH-GRADE SILVER AND GOLD AT KITSAULT VALLEY

Dolly Varden Silver Corp. has released its plans for the fully financed 2025 exploration drilling program at its 100-per-cent-owned Kitsault Valley project. The aggressive drill program planned for the Kitsault Valley project located in the newly emerging southern Eskay Rift subbasin in northwestern British Columbia's Golden Triangle will consist of a minimum planned 35,000 metres of diamond drilling, building on the success of the 2024 program. Drilling will focus on expanding high-grade mineralization at the Wolf and Homestake silver deposits and will follow up on promising results from numerous exploration targets including Red Point and Moose. The program will also include deep drilling at the Big Bulk copper-gold porphyry target. Drilling will commence in mid-May with four rigs expected to be active throughout the season.

"We are following up on some of the strongest silver and gold intercepts we've seen to date as we grow the known deposits, while also targeting new areas with district-scale potential," said Shawn Khunkhun, president and chief executive officer of Dolly Varden Silver. "The goal for 2025 is to grow the resource base and continue demonstrating the scale of the Kitsault Valley project."

Program highlights

Wolf deposit

At the Wolf vein, drilling will target the extension of the southwesterly plunging, high-grade silver corridor along strike and at depth, with the aim to further expand the zone. Directional drilling technology will again be employed to accurately intersect the steeply dipping vein with priority on aggressive stepouts from the farthest west stepout drill hole from 2024, DV24-421, that intersected 379 grams per tonne silver, 0.64 per cent lead and 0.66 per cent zinc over 21.69 metres, including 1,804 g/t, 4.36 per cent Pb and 3.10 per cent Zn over 1.67 metres (from previous release: Jan. 7, 2025).

Alteration and structural studies recently completed indicate that the vein mineralization at Wolf is becoming consistently more robust with a higher temperature alteration signature toward the southwest extension as it approaches the projection of the Central Valley/Moose Lamb basin-bounding fault system that connects through from the Torbrit silver deposit. The stepout drilling planned for 2025 will target the intersection of the two main structures interpreted to be the source of Wolf silver mineralization.

Estimated true widths vary depending on intersection angles and range from 50 per cent to 85 per cent of core lengths. Further modelling of the new interpretation is needed before true widths can be calculated.

Homestake silver

Drilling at the Homestake silver deposit will continue to define and expand the gold- and silver-rich plunge zone interpreted utilizing assay results and structural data from the previous season's drilling. Stepout drilling from 2024 drill holes HR24-431, which intersected 21.55 g/t Au and 27 g/t Ag over 8.72 metres, and drill hole HR24-433, which intersected 35.05 g/t Au and 114 g/t Ag over 2.32 metres (both from previous release: Feb. 3, 2025), will be completed. Also, local infill within the wider high-grade plunge where drill hole HR-437 intersected 21.34 g/t Au and 384 g/t Ag over 2.40 metres (previous release: Feb. 3, 2025) is planned toward resource work.

The program will test the projected trend and the downdip extent of the structurally controlled system, which shows strong continuity and upside.

Moose vein

The Moose vein is located 1.5 km north of the Wolf vein with silver mineralization intersected by drilling in an epithermal vein similar to Wolf. Follow-up drilling will test down plunge extensions from drill hole DV24-387 that intersected 977 g/t Ag over 5.00 metres, including 3,670 g/t Ag over 0.79 metre (from previous release: June 19, 2024).

Red Point

The Red Point target is on the west side of the Kitsault River trending northwest toward the Homestake Ridge deposits six kilometres northwest. Red Point is a known broad quartz sericite pyrite alteration zone with high-grade gold values within stockwork zones. Reinterpreted downhole structural data highlight high-grade structural corridors that will be tested during the 2025 season. Follow-up drilling planned for 2025 will test the extent of the new hypothesis based on drill hole DV24-400 that intersected 21.10 g/t Au over 0.50 m, within a broader zone averaging 0.79 g/t Au over 20.15 metres (from previous release: Jan. 7, 2025) from an intense quartz sericite stockwork.

Big Bulk

Located approximately five kilometres to the east of the main Kitsault Valley trend, the Big Bulk area is a large, underexplored copper-gold porphyry system where copper and gold mineralization in stockwork veining has been intersected by previous operators (Anglo Gold Ashanti in 2009 and Libero Copper & Gold Corp. in 2021) along the margin of the associated alteration system. The 2025 program will include deep drilling to test the northeast-trending mineralized system based on updated geological interpretation and mapping. The target is prospective for both copper-gold porphyry and skarn-style mineralization, analogous to nearby Red Mountain and KSM deposits.

Property exploration targets

Exploration targets on both the Homestake Ridge and Dolly Varden properties include targets within the 5.4-kilometre-long area between the southern end of Homestake silver and Wolf vein, under the mid-valley sedimentary cap rocks. Additionally, geophysical targets west of the Homestake Main deposit will be tested, within parallel basin-bounding structures similar to those hosting the Homestake Main and Homestake silver deposits.

With the recently announced proposed acquisition of the adjacent Kinskuch project area from Hecla Mining Co., an initial program of geological mapping and reconnaissance of the prospective Jurassic age Hazelton group rocks of the underexplored 30-kilometre eastern Illiance trend and western Surbet (Goliath Resources Ltd.) hosting trend is also planned for the 2025 exploration season, once the acquisition completes later this month. Combined with the results of continuing data compilation, this planned fieldwork will generate priority drill targets that could be tested later in the 2025 season if timing and budget allow.

Other studies on road access, advanced metallurgy, wildlife and baseline environmental monitoring, as well as field mapping in underexplored areas of the property, will be completed.

Quality assurance and quality control

The company adheres to Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum Best Practices Guidelines for exploration-related activities conducted on its property. Quality assurance and quality control procedures are overseen by the qualified person.

Dolly Varden QA/QC protocols are maintained through the insertion of certified reference material (standards), blanks and field duplicates within the sample stream. Drill core is cut in half with a diamond saw, with one-half placed in sealed bags and shipped to the laboratory and the other half retained on site. Third party laboratory checks on 5 per cent of the samples are carried out as well. Chain of custody is maintained from the drill to the submittal into the laboratory preparation facility.

Analytical testing was performed by ALS Canada Ltd. in North Vancouver, B.C. The entire sample is crushed to 70 per cent minus two millimetres (10 mesh), of which a 500-gram split is pulverized to minus 200 mesh. Multielement analyses were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry for 48 elements following a four-acid digestion process. High-grade silver testing was determined by fire assay with either an atomic absorption or a gravimetric finish, depending on grade range. Au is also determined by fire assay on a 30-gram split with either atomic absorption or gravimetric finish, depending on grade range. Metallic screen on a 1.0-kilogram sample may be completed on high-grade gold samples.

Qualified person

Rob van Egmond, PGeo, vice-president, exploration, for Dolly Varden Silver, the qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed, validated and approved the scientific and technical information contained in this news release, and supervises the continuing exploration program at the Dolly Varden project. Rob van Egmond, PGeo, is not independent of the company in accordance with NI 43-101.

About Dolly Varden Silver Corp.

Dolly Varden is a mineral exploration company focused on advancing its 100-per-cent-held Kitsault Valley project (which combines the Dolly Varden project and the Homestake Ridge project) located in the Golden Triangle of British Columbia, Canada, 25 kilometres by road to tidewater. The 163-square-kilometre project hosts the high-grade silver and gold resources of Dolly Varden and Homestake Ridge along with the past-producing Dolly Varden and Torbrit silver mines. It is considered to be prospective for hosting further precious metal deposits, being on the same structural and stratigraphic belts that host numerous other, on-trend, high-grade deposits, such as Eskay Creek and Brucejack. The Kitsault Valley project also contains the Big Bulk property, which is prospective for porphyry and skarn style copper and gold mineralization, similar to other such deposits in the region (Red Mountain, KSM and Red Chris).

We seek Safe Harbor.