Replies to post #3707 on ***Muaythai''s Miners***

[Stinky_pinky]

Fortuna looking to quadruple silver production over 5 years

Now that its San Jose mine is up and running, Fortuna Silver is looking for acquisitions to help it meet its production target of 14 million oz silver in five years up from 3.7 million oz planned for 2012.

Author: Julie Gordon
Posted: Thursday , 08 Mar 2012



TORONTO (Reuters) -

Fortuna Silver Mines is on the prowl for takeover targets as the silver producer looks to nearly quadruple its production over the next five years.

The Vancouver-based miner, which has spent the last few years focusing on starting up its San Jose mine in Mexico, is now turning its attention to growth, chief executive Jorge Ganoza told Reuters on the sidelines of PDAC conference.

The Peruvian-born executive was in Toronto to present at the annual mining gathering put on by the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada.

"We have a strategic objective of producing 14 million ounces of silver (annually) within five years," said Ganoza, adding that the company plans to produce 3.7 million ounces this year. "We want to become a force in world silver production."

With about half of that new output coming from expansions at its existing projects in Mexico and Peru, Fortuna is taking a hard look at other growth opportunities.

"It will likely come from an acquisition," said Ganoza. "Now will it be a post-discovery, pre-development stage opportunity? Very likely, that's where we look."

To that point, Fortuna is eyeing targets throughout Latin America. Peru and Mexico are its preferred regions, but Argentina, Chile and Central America are also on its radar.

The main criteria is a silver deposit with a big enough resource to operate for many years and is similar to mines the company already has in its portfolio.

"Every time we think about bringing something new into the portfolio, we don't just look at the quality of the asset, we say 'how does this impact the portfolio'," said Ganoza.

"Not all ounces are created equal, we want ounces that provide that healthy margin that our operation needs."

With an ambitious growth plan and a tight timeline to make it happen, Fortuna is also banking on its existing portfolio of projects to help squeeze out those extra ounces.

The company plans to spend some $71 million this year, as its expands output at San Jose, revamps facilities at the Caylloma mine in Peru and continues exploration drilling on its Mario deposit, also in Peru.

A resource estimate for Mario is due in the second quarter. While quick to point out that it is still early days, Ganoza said that drill results at the new project are promising.

"We're excited about what we're seeing," he said.

http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page32?oid=146941&sn=Detail&pid=102055
reposted by S_P

[Imperial Whazoo]

Followed you over here from the SFMI bourd. I was unaware of this board and am glad to have found it.

Check this link out, will ya?
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=67234497

I maintain the following is true: SFMI could have terrible precious metal content in their piles and be grinding it up in their mill and still be way ahead of the game regarding other companies who took a traditional approach and drilled for years and generated a 43-101. Further, I contend that there is nothing the least bit bad about doing it the way they are doing it.

As a matter of fact, it is a very smart thing for them to have taken the road nobody else even though to try.

Anyway, the fact is that the link shows lots of producing mining companies to make the point that ordinary producing mining companies trumpet the tremondousness of their resources, but the quality they crow about is not better than what SFMI has ready to go, above ground.

I maintain this is a very important fact about SFMI that gets lost in all the perpetual bad mouthing that goes on. My post is to drive home the point that SFMI has better results out of its above ground piles.

BTW: I started looking to see if other companies are going to use old piles and guess what? Lots have begun to try it. Looks like its going to become a lot more commonplace. And there's even a giagantic S. African tailing site that some company has contracted to harvest on a truly grand scale.

SFMI was way out in front on this, LOL.

I like what I see in the business plan SFMI employs, thank you very much, and for the life of me, it makes absolutely no sense to forever point out that there is no front-loaded drilling for years and no 43-101 as a starting point.

For mast companies, the standard path is necessary because nodody much has 800K tons of piles, like on War Eagle mountain. So everybody else is condemned to have to do a 43-101 and multi-year drilling programs (both at a huge cost) to define things. SFMI can start with rock ready to exploit that is already above ground. (AND THEY DID IT) What an advantage.

With the ordinary miner, about 6 to 8 years into it, they finally get to pile rock into above ground piles that they can then grind up.

SFMI has their piles right there, ready to go.

I'm not anti 43-101 or anti drilling programs. I'm just a logical guy.

If you can grab 800000 tons of existing piles and grind them up, you do not have to spend anywhere near as much money or time to get going as any of the traditional approached require.

Thats why I listed the comparison companies in that link:
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=67234497

Add to that the fact that SFMI's piles are, in fact, really, really good in comparison, then its like a slam dunk.

I Don't care for SFMI's management one iota. I figure they have obfuscated because they did not want to send up a flare and tell the world any more than they have to because they wanted to get control of the real estate on the mountain (and all the old claims problems) without all the old claim holders and property owners raising the buy price they would sell to SFMI for. So I figure they have deliberately played possum to try to maintain whatever low price guarantee they could manage. After all... the owner family (Pierre Quilliam) is a real estate guy and this is exactly how you fly under the radar when yo try to gain control over a neighborhood into which you intend to build a shopping center, for example.

Now that SFMI is about to file their 4th Q & year end..... and now that they are going to host a bunch of broker-types this Friday, they must feel pretty assured they have control of the mountain to a necessary degree. I would not be the least bit surprised to see them change PR practices. We can hope, LOL

Anyway.... I refuse to lie to people about SFMI being a bad company. They are a management team I despise, but as to precious metal content and so forth, the fact they are not built around a 43-101 and drilling programs that take years to do is irrelevent. I feel I'd be a liar if I said that SFMI was a crummy company over the 43-101 and drilling thingy. They have rock that assays well and they have built and currently operate as a producer. they are doing just fine and I refuse to lie about it, LOL.

I like the board I tracked you down on here. Thanks for the shout out on SFMI.

l8r

Imperial Whazoo