Esperanza May Start Two
Gold-Silver Mines by 2011, Pincus Says
April 9 (Bloomberg) --
Esperanza Silver Corp., a Canadian minerals exploration company, plans to
start producing silver and gold at mines in Peru and Mexico by 2011. The next
steps for Vancouver-based Esperanza will be to finish feasibility studies at
the San Luis deposit in Peru this year, and at Cerro Jumil in Mexico in 2009,
President William Pincus said yesterday in a Bloomberg Television interview.
“San Luis will start producing first as it will be a more profitable mine,''
Pincus said, in comments from New York. “It's a high-grade discovery.” Gold
and silver have had annual gains since 2000 and rallied this year as a weaker
dollar and rising oil costs boosted the appeal of the precious metals as
inflation hedges. Industrial demand also has grown, said Pincus, who has
worked in the mining industry for 32 years. San Luis may produce as much as
100,000 ounces of gold and 2 million ounces of silver a year, while Cerro
Jumil may yield as much as 150,000 ounces of gold, Pincus said. Each mine
could cost between $50 million and $100 million to build, he said.
Mining in Peru Peru, the world's largest
silver producer and No. 5 in gold, is counting on $13 billion in mining
investments to help drive economic growth of 7 percent in each of the next
four years. Gold futures for June delivery advanced $11.30, or 1.2 percent,
to $929.30 an ounce at 11:13 a.m. on
the New York
Mercantile Exchange's Comex division. The metal, up
31 percent last
year, reached a record $1,033.90 an ounce on March 17. Silver futures for May
delivery rose 56.7 cents, or 3.2 percent, to $18.275 an ounce in New York.
The price jumped 19 percent this year before today, after rising 15 percent
in 2007.
--With reporting by Marisela Riveros in New York. Editors: Ted Bunker, Kevin
Orland. To contact the reporters on this story: Alex Emery in Lima at +511-222-6262 or aemery1@bloomberg.net Karla Palomo in New York at +1-212-617-5189 or kpalomo@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Stroth at +1-312-443-5931 or sstroth@bloomberg.net
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Esperanza Silver Corporation |