one of the silver juniors i mentioned last week, endeavour silver, just reported a loss of $12.2 million for the year.  this comes despite an average silver price of $13.23/oz.  this is the link:

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080407/to379.html?.v=36

that's why i think those junior silver producers should actually be considered exploration companies, and not producers.  if you look at their news release, they say production is up, resources are up, and reserves are up.  they just aren't making any money.  that sounds more like an exploration company than a producer to me.

not that there is anything wrong with edr.  they had some non-recurring expenses, and their assets are continuing to grow.  but if you can't make money with today's historically high silver prices, then your projects aren't very robust.

that's why i was glad to see the shafter project sold off.  it looks like aurcana is following the same game plan as the other junior silvers.  find an old shut-down silver mine with permitting and infrastructure in place, so it can be started up fairly quickly, and then try to produce enough cash flow to fund the company's exploration efforts.  the only difference is they have a mine in texas, not mexico.

the shafter mine is not something you can build a company around.  aurcana, endeavour and the rest can use these projects to provide enough funding to keep their drills turning, but that's about all.

sso has pirquitas and all the rest of the best projects because they got there first, and that will become clear once they start producing not just ounces, but also profits.