Silver Wheaton Announces Adoption of Shareholder Rights Plan

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwire) -- 12/08/08 -- Silver Wheaton Corp. (TSX: SLW)(NYSE: SLW) announced today that its board of directors has approved the adoption of a shareholder rights plan (the "Rights Plan"), effective December 8, 2008.

The purpose of the Rights Plan is to provide shareholders and the board of directors with adequate time to consider and evaluate any unsolicited take-over bid made for Silver Wheaton's common shares, provide the board of directors with adequate time to identify, develop and negotiate value-enhancing alternatives, and encourage the fair treatment of shareholders in connection with any take-over bid made for Silver Wheaton's common shares. The Rights Plan is intended to prevent any person from acquiring beneficial ownership of more than 20% of the outstanding common shares of Silver Wheaton while the board of directors' process is ongoing, or from entering into arrangements or relationships that have a similar effect. The Rights Plan remains subject to acceptance by the Toronto Stock Exchange and ratification by Silver Wheaton's shareholders at its next annual meeting of shareholders expected to be held in May 2009. If ratified by the shareholders, the Rights Plan will continue in force until the end of Silver Wheaton's third meeting of shareholders after such ratification. Silver Wheaton is not aware of any specific take-over bid for Silver Wheaton that has been made or is contemplated.

In order to implement the Rights Plan, the board of directors has authorized the issuance of the rights to holders of its common shares at the rate of one right for each common share outstanding. The rights will automatically attach to the common shares and no further action will be required by shareholders.

Pursuant to the terms of the Rights Plan, any bid that meets certain criteria intended to protect the interests of all shareholders will be deemed to be a "permitted bid" and will not trigger the Rights Plan. These criteria require, among other things, that the bid be made by way of a take-over bid circular to all holders of voting shares other than the offeror under the bid, and remain open for acceptance by shareholders for at least 60 days. In the event a take-over bid does not meet the permitted bid requirements of the Rights Plan, the rights issued under the plan will entitle shareholders, other than any shareholder or shareholders involved in the take-over bid, to purchase additional common shares of Silver Wheaton at a significant discount to the market price.

A copy of the Rights Plan will be filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and made available on Silver Wheaton's website upon acceptance by the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Silver Wheaton is the largest public mining company with 100% of its operating revenue from silver production.