The Soros Crew is very active in silver these days:
Bolivia San Cristobal silver mine sees 2001 start
By Robert S. Elliott
LA PAZ, Bolivia, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Bolivia's $380-400 million San Cristobal silver project is gauged to kick-off production in August 2001 after proven and probable reserves were recently doubled, a top official said.
Based on a mine life of 17-20 years, annual production is estimated at 17 million ounces of silver, 157,000 tonnes of zinc and 82,000 tonnes of lead, Andean Silver Corp (AMEX:SIL - news). president Johnny Delgado told Reuters in his La Paz office.
Andean Silver is the Bolivian offshoot of Cayman Islands- based Apex Silver Mines Ltd, the sole owner of San Cristobal.
With $25 million already sunk into the open-pit project, its rigorous bankable feasibility study will be finished in April, followed by a financing hunt led by Deutsche Bank Securities (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: DBKG.F) and Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of the Barclays Bank (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: BARC.L), Delgado said.
''We estimate that if things go well we'll have financing in July and begin construction in August,'' he said.
Full production is foreseen at the top of 2002, Delgado said. Throughput will begin with 40,000 tonnes of ore per day and ratchet up to 60,000 tonnes in the sixth or seventh year, he estimated.
The project's proven and probable reserves stand at 259 million tonnes of ore grading two ounces per tonne of silver, 1.57 percent zinc and 0.55 percent lead.
Critics of San Cristobal say its grades are too low for it to be considered a world class silver strike.
''The grades are low, but yields are high,'' said Delgado.
Recovery rates for all the deposit's metals are between 85 and 90 percent, he said.
Situated about 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) above sea level among low-lying hills on Bolivia's high Andean plateau, San Cristobal straddles one of the world's most historically prolific silver belts. The legendary Cerro Rico, which helped bankroll the Spanish empire in the late 1500s, is to the southeast, along with the exhausted Pulacayo and Mesa de Plata mines.
San Cristobal's estimated investment of $380-$400 million will include the construction of a town for its 400 workers, a milling operation and a flotation plant.
All output will be exported to foreign smelters, although the route is not yet known. One option is by train exiting at the Chilean Pacific port of Antofagasta, which would require the purchase of rolling stock and the construction of 26 miles (40 km) of track.
The other option is to build a $60 million road leading to the Chilean free trade zone of Iquique, said Delgado. So far the road seems to be cheaper alternative, he said.
Apex Silver Mines Ltd. is a mining exploration and development company started in 1993. Its silver properties cover two million acres in eight countries within the traditional silver-producing regions of South America, Central America and Central Asia.
International financier George Soros and his brother Paul control nearly 20 percent of Apex, while Moore Capital Management chief executive Louis Bacon holds about 6.9 percent.
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