Sunshine Finds Big Silver Trove Argentine Mine Shows More Metal Than Company Thought

Sunshine Mining & Refining Co. has found a lot more silver in its new mine in Argentina than it had first thought.

Thursday’s announcement that the Pirquitas mine contains as much as 312 million ounces of silver, as well as 463 million pounds of tin, means the company will move quickly to see if mining the deposit makes economic sense.

Pirquitas had been Argentina’s largest silver and tin producing mine until it was closed in 1990.

Sunshine, which owns and operates the Sunshine Mine in Big Creek, Idaho, bought the mine late last year for $1.7 million.

A 1992 study suggested that the mine contained 130 million ounces. Recent drilling moved the “resource” estimate - ore that could be mined - to the 312 million the company sees now.

Further drilling will try to move the silver and tin to “reserve” status, or ore that provably can be mined.

The company will likely begin a feasibility study later this year, said Bill Davis, a Sunshine spokesman in Dallas. It will take between six months and a year to complete, and the company will make a decision at that time to go ahead with the project or not.

Sunshine President and Chief Executive Officer John Simko called the preliminary report very encouraging.

“To say we are excited about developments at the Pirquitas property is an understatement,” Simko said in a news release.

Currently an underground mine like the Sunshine, Pirquitas would be developed as an open-pit mine. That setup allows miners to make money with less concentration of ore in the rock than in traditional underground mines because much more ore gets processed.

Sunshine has struggled financially this decade, emerging from bankruptcy in 1992. Recently, new discoveries of silver in the West Chance area of the Sunshine mine have led the company to double production there.

Sunshine’s stock finished Thursday unchanged at $1.50 a share after trading lower through much of the day.

, DataTimes