Production

MARTHA (ARGENTINA)

Since purchasing Martha for $2.5 million in 2002, we have produced over 12.0 million silver ounces and have steadily increased the mine’s proven and probable silver ore reserves through constant exploration.

 Prior to this year, we transported the Martha Mine ore by truck approximately 600 miles by road for processing at the Cerro Bayo mill facilities. Due to continued exploration success and increased ore reserves, we constructed a standalone 240 tonne per day processing facility at Martha during 2007 at a cost of $15 million. This new mill is expected to lower operating costs because it will no longer be necessary to transport ore to Cerro Bayo for processing. 

Production at the Martha mine in 2007 was approximately 2.7 million ounces of silver and 4,127 ounces of gold, compared to 2.7 million ounces of silver and 3,440 ounces of gold in 2006. Cash costs per ounce of silver produced were $6.27 in 2007, compared to $4.88 in 2006. 

During 2007, we spent over $2.7 million on exploration and reserve development to discover new silver- and gold-bearing veins and define new reserves at Martha and an additional $2.4 million at our other properties in southern Argentina. During 2008, we expect to spend $6.8 million on exploration for the discovery of new mineralization and reserve development across our large land holdings in the province of Santa Cruz, which totals over 568 square miles.