The International Resource Journal: South American Silver Corporation South American Silver Corporation ================================================================================ admin on 05 October, 2009 11:49:00 South American Silver Corporation, of Vancouver, British Colombia, has quite the historical tale to tell. “In 1994, I was chief geologist of Chevron Minerals Corp. When they went out of the mineral business, I started a company called General Minerals Corp and picked up some properties in Chile. At that point in time we were copper-focused. In 1995 we went on the TSX, the Toronto Stock Exchange, and had a lot of early success. The share price went up to $16 from a couple of dollars where we started,” Ralph Fitch, President, CEO and Chairman of South American Silver says. “Then we decided to split the company up. In 2007, my old company General Minerals split into two companies. I began South American Silver Corp with our South American assets because of the different skill sets and the exploration properties we possessed,” he continues. Brilliant Beginnings Fitch explains that a great advantage for South American Silver was that the company already had “a very good asset” up its sleeve. “We also had an excellent team in place that had been together for 14 years. We were able to get off to a very quick start and do a substantial amount of work very early on in our existence as SA Silver,” he continues. Today South American Silver has a very exciting project to talk about; the Malku Khota silver-indium-gold project located in the Department of Potosi, Bolivia. This project was discovered when the company was out exploring the deposit and were looking at a vein in the rock. The team discovered that the rock surrounding this vein was sandstone, and the matter of interest mineralized with silver. A mineralization test was done, and as the team walked south along the 60 kilometre sandstone ridge, it became clear than the area was still mineralized, indicating a fine time for the geological survey that followed. Fitch says that Malku Khota “could be simply described as large, leachable and low cost.” “Those are really key points in what distinguishes this large deposit from others. In terms of resource, we have 145 million ounces in the indicated category and 178 million ounces in the inferred category.” Fitch explains that the indium contained within Malku Khota is another exciting aspect of the project. “It’s an electronic metal used for things like coating the LCD displays, in fact that’s probably its major use. It is the coating on the television and computer screens. It’s a very modern electronic metal,” he says. “In our resource we have 1800 tonnes of indium in the integrated category and another 1000 tonnes in the inferred category. What is of particular importance is that it is leachable, so our capital costs are much lower than a typical silver deposit of this size.” Fitch says that the preliminary economic assessment (PEA) they have had completed on Malku Khota indicates that the project could be mined at 20,000 tonnes of ore per day for 36 years. “The interesting thing is we have only drilled a third of the terrain or less which we think is mineralized so there is a good chance there is going to be an extremely large deposit that will go on for many, many years,” he says. Bolivia, Silver and Tomorrow Fitch explains that Bolivian mining law “has a much more modern claim system than the US.” “It’s all based on the UTM coordinates which is rather like using GPS. It records the exact place on the surface of the earth so you don’t have to put stakes in the ground. It’s a very clear system because everyone knows exactly where it is,” he says. Add to this strong mining environment the current gold and silver market trends, and it’s clear that South American Silver is in a pretty desirable position. “Silver has a little bit of an advantage on gold because it also has significant industrial uses as well. One thing one has to remember is gold and silver have been used as money for thousands of years. So when you have economic and political crises, people turn to silver and gold,” Fitch says. “Typically you sell silver on a three month or monthly price average, but at present time we are an exploration company and will only start selling silver when the mine comes into production. On that score, some milestones coming up are in 2010 we will be doing the prefeasibility study, an engineering study which is fairly accurate but not absolute, and in 2011 we will do final study which is a detailed feasibility study and we should get into production somewhere between 2012 and 2014. We will produce 6.4 million ounces silver a year for the first 10 years and 37 tonnes of indium.” Here we have an experienced, well-formed team with a winning hand from day one. Combine these natural company traits with Bolivian mining-friendly legislation, a good time for gold and silver, and Fitch’s clear idea of what the future holds, and South American Silver Corp look destined for some great results.