Pan American Silver Inaugurates Its Manantial Espejo Silver and Gold Mine

VANCOUVER, BC - Pan American Silver Corp. reported that it has celebrated the official inauguration of its Manantial Espejo silver and gold mine in the southern province of Santa Cruz, Argentina. The Company also provided an update on operations at its newest mine.
Representatives of the Argentinean federal and provincial governments gathered at Manantial Espejo on March 16th to participate in the official inaugural ceremony and celebration. Also in attendance were Minister of Planning, Julio de Vido, Mining Secretary, Jorge Mayoral, the Governor of the province of Santa Cruz, Daniel Peralta, and the Canadian ambassador to Argentina, Tim Martin. Juan Vasquez, Indentente of Gobernador Gregores was present to represent the local communities as were senior members of Pan American's executive management team and, of course, Manantial Espejo's employees.
On site construction of the Manantial Espejo mine and 2,000 tonne-per-day processing plant began in October of 2006 and was essentially complete by the end of October of last year. Commissioning has run smoothly and has progressed well ahead of plan. Manantial Espejo poured its first silver and gold dore in late December of last year and in the first two months of 2009 has produced over 415,000 ounces of silver and more than 7,000 ounces of gold.
Commenting on Manantial Espejo's inauguration, Geoff Burns, President & CEO said: "It is extremely gratifying to be producing silver and gold at our first mine in Argentina. In my opinion, there has never been a better time to add a "pure" precious metals mine to Pan American's portfolio of assets, given the continuing instability in the global financial markets and the promising outlook for both silver and gold prices."
Burns added: "Building Manantial Espejo was not an easy task. Extreme climactic conditions and acute cost inflation added six months to the schedule and an additional US$40 million to the final price tag. But with the help of our host communities, the Argentine government, our employees and our contractors, we persevered and today we inaugurated a state of the art mining operation. We are extremely excited about Manantial Espejo's future and look forward to a long and mutually prosperous affiliation with the people of Santa Cruz and Argentina. Furthermore, I am optimistic that Pan American will be able to significantly expand our operations in Argentina as we make use of our experiences in building Manantial Espejo and of the positive relationships we have established with the Argentine authorities."
The company’s address is 1500-625 Howe Street Vancouver, BC V6C 2T6, (604) 684-1175, fax: (604) 684-0147, email: [email protected].