Great Panther to buy Coricancha from Nyrstar

VANCOUVER — Junior silver miner Great Panther Silver (TSX: GPR; NYSE-MKT: GPL) has struck a deal with Nyrstar to acquire the European smelting giant’s shuttered Coricancha polymetallic mine complex, 90 km by road east of Lima, Peru. Great Panther wants to bring the 600-tonne-per-day underground operation, which has been under care and maintenance since August 2013, back into production by the second half of 2018. Coricancha could increase the company’s annual silver-equivalent production by 75%, Great Panther president and CEO Robert Archer tells The Northern Miner during a phone interview. “Once the mine reaches full production it could crank out 3 million silver eq. ounces annually, and that’s a substantial bump in production for us,” Archer says. “After the deal closes, we’ll hit the ground running, starting with mine rehabilitation and underground drilling.” The company expects to complete a preliminary economic study at Coricancha by the second half of this year, and while Archer wouldn’t discuss any detailed numbers, he estimates that it could cost US$25 million to restart the mine.  Read the entire story at The Northern Miner.