For any investors who did not have the time to watch this presentation, it looks like we are going to increase production from an annual rate of $15 mllion in Q4 2011 to an annual rate of $60 million in Q4 2012. They also estimate annual production in about 3 years when the proposed 2,000 tpd sulphide mill is in operation of 4 million oz silver, 80,000 oz gold and about 10 million pounds each of lead and zinc. This is about $320 million worth per year.
They are also going to drive the ramp the remaining 1 km or so needed to reach the San Juana veins.
One of the reasons they are going to increase production 4 fold over the next 15 months is that they are going to change the mining methods so that the waste rock is not mixed with the ore rock.
They said it is no surprise that they are going to need funding in the future and that they plan to get funding by optioning some of the 40 properties that are in the pipeline.
Looking at their management team, it impressed me that these guys stuck together after the Apex Silver bankruptcy. From what I can remember, the huge San Cristobal mine is what crashed Apex, and it was due to multiple factors including the silver and zinc price crashes in 2008, the fact that production did not come on line until 2 or 3 quarters after projection, and that they hedged and sold forward much of their silver production. Bringing a large base metal open pit on line like San Cristobal is a potential for ruin for any junior, let alone doing it with a 60% metals price crash like zinc had.