Home > News > Exploration at Pan...

Exploration at Pan American's Lakeshore continues despite Covid

Aug 11, 2021


Pan American Silver Corp. today reported its estimated mineral reserves and resources as of June 30.

At Timmins, over 200 thousand ounces of gold were added to mineral reserves, extending the mine life by more than one year. The Bell Creek mine added 68 thousand gold ounces from exploration and infill drilling. The Timmins West mine added 137 thousand gold ounces through extensional and infill drilling on the 144 Gap and Timmins deposits. 

Proven and probable mineral reserves are estimated to contain approximately 529 million ounces of silver and 4.2 million ounces of gold. Measured and indicated mineral resources (excluding proven and probable reserves) are estimated to total approximately 818 million ounces of silver and 8.3 million ounces of gold. In addition, inferred mineral resources total 460 million ounces of silver and 5.8 million ounces of gold.

Christopher Emerson, Pan American's Vice President of Business Development and Geology commented: "Despite the restrictions the COVID-19 pandemic placed on our 2020 exploration program, excellent results were achieved at many of our operations. At La Arena, we replaced 141% of the ounces mined, extending mine life by another year. Mine life was also extended by another year at Timmins through the discovery of 209 thousand ounces of new gold mineral reserves, replacing 147% of ounces mined. At La Colorada, the ventilation restrictions impacted exploration activities, however, recent improvements to the ventilation circuit will allow us to ramp up exploration drilling at this long-life mine where we have over 100 million ounces of silver mineral reserves and 192 million ounces of inferred resources, including the large skarn deposit. Pan American has one of the largest holdings of silver mineral resources and reserves in the world."

Although the Timmins' exploration program and surface drilling for the La Colorada skarn exploration continued as planned, Pan American's overall exploration activities for the year were reduced by about 50% due to COVID-19 restrictions in Latin America. For the 12-month period ending June 30, 2021, Pan American's producing mines replaced 8.0 million ounces of silver mineral reserves and 98 thousand ounces of gold mineral reserves. Total reserves were impacted by the reclassification of the La Bolsa project from mineral reserves to resources, reducing gold mineral reserves by 315 thousand ounces and silver mineral reserves by 4.5 million ounces. La Bolsa is a non-core project that the Company intends to divest.



Tags: Northern Ontario / Operational Updates / Gold / All Articles