News

February 25, 2010

Scorpio Mining Has The Potential To Become A Mid–Tier Producer Of Precious And Base Metals by 2012

By Charles Wyatt

It has been something of a roller-coaster ride for Peter Hawley, chief executive of Canadian-listed Scorpio Mining. Scorpio owns and operates the Nuestra Sonora mine near the town of Casala in Sinaloa State, Mexico. When we last wrote about the company back in the spring of 2008, prices for the metals that it was on the cusp of producing were robust: silver was US$19.60 per ounce, zinc US$1.22 per pound, lead US$1.50 per pound and copper US$3.77 per pound. It looked as if there was hardly a cloud in the sky. By January 2009, however, when production actually started, the world was in a very different state, and so were metal prices. Silver was around US$11 per ounce, zinc US$0.50 per pound, lead US$45 per pound and copper US$1.35 per pound, and everyone was battening down the hatches and hoping to ride out the storm. Thanks to the Chinese, however, the storm did not last too long. Now prices are looking a lot happier, with silver buoyant at US$15.78 per ounce, as was Peter Hawley when he managed to fit in a quick telephone interview between meetings.

Nuestra Sonora has now been in production for a full year and Peter has cranked up the output of the operation steadily, but firmly. He makes the point that there is still some way to go, but everything is falling into place and there will also be an expansion to the mill this year. The reason for this is the acquisition of Platte River Gold, a private company which is situated within 10 kilometres of Scorpio’s milling plant. Unusually for a private company 83 per cent of Platte River’s shares...