In a nutshell, it is not really operational. The plant was shut down in July of 2012 for major maintenance. For a time I thought it had continued to produce at a very reduced rate; this was apparently incorrect. It began milling ore in mid-December, but it returned the milled ore to the receiving patio, where it is subject to the effects of wind and weather. Many of the small miners won't allow their ores to be milled, because there is no contract with the facility to buy the miner's product. See below. It has not yet begun to process milled ores to extract metal. No date for beginning this processing has been set.
The big Mexican silver producer Penoles used to buy the output of the plant. Not any more. The plant doesn't have a contract with any buyer, and without that, it is pointless to start the extraction process. There's been no information on any effort by the Government or anyone else to establish a contract with a buyer.
The plant is to be contractor operated. The contract has (maybe) been given to a company called Real de Biezma, owned by one Alfredo Amaya Medina. Sr. Amaya has been slow to get started, and some miners believe he doesn't have his finances in order to enable his company to begin operating the plant. Sr. Amaya says he hasn't officially been given the contract to operate the plant. Who knows. The Mexican Government is communicating poorly or not at all on that issue, as it is on almost everything surrounding the plant and its prospects.
There is no commitment whatsoever from anyone in any official capacity to begin full operations by a date certain. The small miners are appealing to the Provincial Governor to get directly involved and make the plant operational. The impact on all miners in the region who do not have their own processing plants has been devastating. The Government plant administrator has basically told them that if they are unhappy, they can take their ores somewhere else. Problem is, there is only one plant within 50 km of Parral that can process 50 tons per day, and that one plant is privately owned and supporting its own mine (Mina Vesper). I'm sure the Mexican Government is doing its best....
