North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

Coeur Mining Inc. March 8 announced that it has completed commissioning of the mill at Silvertip and begun production at the high-grade silver mine in northern British Columbia.

"The achievement of this important milestone at Silvertip builds upon the strong momentum with which we have started 2018," said Coeur President and CEO Mitchell Krebs. "Ramp-up of milling rates and production is planned to continue under temporary permit coverage through year-end.

Ramp-up of production is now slightly ahead of schedule with mill throughput expected to steadily increase throughout the remainder of the year from an estimated 250 metric tons per day in April to 750 tpd by year-end.

"We expect to submit an application for a full permit amendment during the second quarter, receive approval by year-end and reach nameplate capacity of 1,000 tpd in early 2019," Krebs added.

Last October, Coeur paid US$200 million to acquire Silvertip and has agreed to pay up to another US$50 million more if certain permitting and resource expansion milestones are met.

Coeur Mining Inc.

Last fall Coeur bought Silvertip, a turn-key mining operation with 87.4 million silver-equivalent ounces in the measured and indicated resource categories.

For this investment, the Chicago-based miner owns a newly built mine with 2.35 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 352 g/t silver, 9.4 percent zinc and 6.7 percent lead; plus 460,000 metric tons of inferred resource averaging 343 g/t silver, 9.8 percent zinc and 6.2 percent lead.

Going into 2018, this northern B.C. mine had 87.4 million silver-equivalent ounces in the measured and indicated resource categories, about 8 percent of the companywide total.

This is Coeur's first mine in Canada and is expected to become an important asset for the precious metals miner that is continuing to shift its focus north.

"Combined with our recent exit from Bolivia and the release of Rochester's (Nevada) noteworthy preliminary economic assessment, we believe commencement of production at Silvertip further demonstrates the growing strength of Coeur's North America-focused portfolio," Krebs said.

Coeur's portfolio of operating mines also includes the Palmarejo silver-gold mine in Mexico; Wharf gold-silver mine in South Dakota; and the Kensington gold mine in Alaska.

–SHANE LASLEY