Apex Silver Files Restatement of Prior Financial Statements.

DENVER -- Apex Silver Mines Limited (AMEX: SIL) today filed a restatement of its financial statements for the third quarter of 2005 and the first three quarters of 2006, as previously announced. The restatements are necessary in order to correct the previously reported valuation of the company's metal derivative positions.

The company's project finance facility required the company to provide price protection for (effectively selling forward) a portion of its planned production from San Cristobal. In 2005, the company entered into silver, zinc and lead derivatives positions including primarily forward sales, but also puts and calls to comply with this requirement. Many of the derivatives mature or expire beyond the periods covered by the major commodities price indices such as LME or COMEX, or expire in future periods covered by those indices with respect to which only limited trading activity has occurred. In instances where only limited market activity exists, the company historically used price projections to estimate a forward price curve provided by an independent third party employing statistical analysis and models to calculate the fair value of its open derivative positions. The models used by the independent third party relied on commodities prices indices out to three months and mean reversion statistical estimates beyond the three-month period. Recently, the company reassessed the market information reflected in the commodities prices indices out to twenty-seven months and quoted prices from the counterparties holding derivative positions and concluded that the additional market information is a more reliable indicator of fair value than the independent third party price projections the company previously used. The cumulative understatement of the derivative liability is approximately $300.5 million as of September 30, 2006. Additionally, correcting the valuation of the derivatives impacted the gain and minority interest the company recognized on the sale of a 35% interest in its subsidiary that owns the San Cristobal project. The gain on the sale increased from $119.8 million to $199.6 million and the minority interest decreased from $88.4 million to $18.9 million at September 30, 2006.

Apex Silver is a mining exploration and development company. The Ordinary shares of Apex Silver trade on the American Stock Exchange under the symbol "SIL."