– SilverCrest Mines Inc. (the “Company”) is pleased to report that mine construction

activities at its 100% owned Santa Elena mine located in Sonora, Mexico are progressing on schedule and currently under budget.

Santa Elena will be a high grade gold and silver, open pit heap leach mine that is expected to make its initial pour of gold and

silver by mid

year and is scheduled to reach commercial production in the fourth quarter of this year. The estimated capital cost

of the fully financed project is $US 20.0 million and the 2,500 tonne per day facility is expected to produce approximately 35,000

ounces of gold and 600,000 ounces of silver per year over a 7 year mine life at an estimated life of mine cash cost of less than

US$375 per ounce of gold equivalent. The Santa Elena project is fully financed and major site preparation has been underway

since September, 2009. The most significant construction activities that have been completed and are underway are outlined

below. The progress of the site preparation can be seen in the attached panoramic photos.

All major construction contractor agreements including the mining contract are in place.

The 6 kilometre main access road from the near by paved highway to mine site is completed.

Earthworks and preparation for the production facilities including the crusher site, leach pad, maintenance shop,

warehouse and administrative offices.

Construction water, site communications and administrative offices have been established.

The plastic liner material for the leach pad has been delivered to site and will be installed once the impervious clay base has

been laid and compacted to required standards.

The three stage crusher and Merrill Crowe recovery units are complete and awaiting transport to site.

The pouring of concrete foundations for the crusher, maintenance shop, process facility and lab facilities.

The clay for underlining of the leach pad will be hauled to site and compacted to the necessary specifications.

The plastic liners will be installed on the leach pad with the proper Quality Assurance and Control being supervised by

Vector Engineering of Golden, CO.

Assembly of the mine truck and maintenance buildings will commence.

J. Scott Drever, President stated; “There are currently more than 100 Santa Elena and contractor employees on site aggressively

constructing the facilities in anticipation of the first gold and silver pour within in the next 6 to 7 months. The finance facilities

that are in place with Macquarie Bank Limited and Sandstorm Resources Ltd. plus the equity funds we raised assure the project is

adequately financed through to production. We have continued to fine tune the capital and operating parameters of the project

with the result that the already robust project economics continue to improve as the mine moves toward production. We have

assembled a strong team of experienced professional to manage the construction and start up process and fully expect to bring

this new mine in on time and on budget.”

In addition to the current development plan at Santa Elena, resource and production expansion plans are being assessed. This

assessment includes exploration of additional targets, development of underground resources, potential re

treatment of the