Silver Standard Resources’ (TSX: SSO; NASDAQ: SSRI) Pirquitas silver mine in northern Argentina’s Jujuy province is 35 km from Golden Arrow Resources’ (TSXV: GRG) 100% owned Chinchillas silver-lead-zinc project, and the two companies have hatched a plan to see whether they should become partners in a joint venture operation that could be a win-win for everyone.
Over the next 18 months, Silver Standard will study Chinchillas to see whether it makes sense to send ore from the project to its Pirquitas mill. If the answer is yes, Silver Standard would take 75% of the joint venture and be its operator, and Golden Arrow will own the remaining 25%.
On paper, the pairing seems logical, and if the joint venture goes ahead, Chinchillas could start supplying feed to Pirquitas as early as the second half of 2017. The open pit mine entered production in December 2009, and as of December 2014, had a remaining reserve life of about four years.
The agreement involves staged expenditures over the year-and-a-half assessment period in which Silver Standard examines the technical and economic viability of processing Chinchilla mineralization. Silver Standard’s minimum expenditure commitment is $4 million and the maximum is $12.6 million.
Read the complete article at NorthernMiner.com/news/silver-standard
Comments